Piazza Navona is definitely my favorite piazza or square, during any time during the year. I love the people, the architecture and the art of the square making it the most beautiful place in Rome.

I love it during the winter and especially Christmas time since they have stands all over and carnival like games. But it does not lose its fascination during the rest of the year with one of the barmen always trying to persuade you for an iced tea or hot chocolate and the people that just stroll in the piazza admiring it.

I just had a friend visit me from the States and even though she is familiar with Piazza Navona, she is always in awe with the beauty, the architecture and the street art that you find. I find it interesting to see the city from a tourist point of view because when you live in a place you take a lot for granted.

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Piazza Navona | Art & culture, Relaxing | Free
Piazza Navona | City center
24 hours daily

Parco Pappacci is a park near my house and it is a nice park to go relax, bring your dog (there is a separate area just for your pets), run or bring your children.

I go mainly to relax and walk around and maybe sit down on a bench and catch up on some reading, I usually do this during the spring time where you can catch some rays of sunshine as well, while I read or do some people watching and take a break from work and home.

In March when spring time is close you can admire the trees blossoming and the daisies which make the park so much prettier. I keep on going during the summer as well because the shades of the trees makes the heat so much more bearable, even though there is less people watching to do.

During the colder months, the parks get more people walking or jogging around than sitting at the park! You can still enjoy the people walking and stop and chat with one of the elderly ladies from the neighborhood, which always have great stories. And if you want to warm up there is nothing like a run or jog in the park to do the trick!

And now they added more events like a pony ride around the park…the children love it, and for the adults there is some evening music, which is a great way to meet the people that live in the neighborhood.

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Parco Pappacci | Music, Relaxing | Free
Via di Grottarossa 124 | Cassia & Montemario
05:00 – 22:00 daily

The Milk Bar is the first place entirely dedicated to motherhood and breastfeeding, a very contemporary approach to it, perfectly tuned with the modern mums!

Oh, well, as any other city in the world, also Rome is packed with mom&baby clothing and accessory shops but The Milk Bar takes a step further and gets deeper into the topic. At The Milk Bar, Kiersten Pilar Miller, its newyorker founder scouts, imports and sells the best selection ever dedicated to pregnancy and maternity. Not only bottles and “strategic” underwear but plenty of (just apparently) useless articles to make that time of our life the easiest and the most enjoyable.

 The interior decor is pretty cool, too, as The Milk Bar is also intended to be a meeting place or just a stop-by in case you need a quiet place to breastfeed your baby whilst in town. It also act as an info point about breastfeeding and maternity in general, in different languages.

Last, but not least, The Milk Bar is a real joy for baby (and fashionistas mums!) shopping…Should it be for you or for a friend, unusual and trendy items are waiting for you and your little ones!

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The Milk Bar | Relaxing, Shopping
Via di S. Martino ai Monti, 34 | City center | +390697276418
Mon – Tue 10:00 – 18:30, Wed 12:30 – 20:30, Thu – Sat 10:00 – 18:30

Spending holidays in Rome makes one think of, doh, Roman Holiday, the film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck that immortalized their image riding on a Vespa through the Eternal City. I even have one small poster of that scene in my office.

It wasn’t easy to get hold of it, but I found in the Libreria del Cinema, (roughly translated as Films’ Bookstore), a small space with bookshelves, DVDs and a restaurant-bar in the Trastevere neighborhood.

Almost anything about cinema can be found in here. Whether it is a poster like mine, or a rare director’s cut of an old film, books or original scripts you’re looking for, you will surely in the meantime find something interesting to look at or to take home. The guys in charge know a lot about the topic, so if you are in doubt, just ask them.

The place opens after lunch. In the wifi area of the bar it is possible to spend hours and hours reading or looking at their extended catalogue. Keep in mind that here you will not find about the latest chick flick or the romantic comedy of the year. Their idea of cinema is more about the artistic side, the work of extraordinary directors, or cult movies. They, however, do not offer popcorn. Enjoy!

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Libreria del Cinema | Art & culture, Cinemas, Relaxing | Dvd € 10
Via dei Fienaroli, 31 | Trastevere
Mon – Sat 14:00 – 21:00

Are you Protestant, Jewish, or Christian Orthodox? If so, and if you happened to die while visiting Rome in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, perhaps of ‘mal-aria’ in the summer months, chances are that you would be buried in the Cimitero Acattolico near Piramide, aka as the Protestant Cemetery.

Catholic law in fact used to prohibit any non-Catholic from being buried in Catholic churches or cemeteries. Given that there were growing numbers Danes, Germans, English, Americans, Russians and Swedes who came to visit, study or live in Rome during in the 1800′s, the Cimitero Acattolico became the designated area to bury these ‘stranieri’.

Now, it is the place where you can get away from it all while contemplating the graves of the Great. In what seems like a peaceful garden just meters away from the bustle of the Piramide area, you will find the tombs of Shelley, Keats, and Gramsci, to name the most famous of the many poets, historians, archaeologists, painters, sculptors, diplomats and intellectuals buried here. For a complete listing please visit the Cemetery’s website or the Cemetery’s Information Center.

In addition to Keats’ gravestone where you will be able to read the famous ‘here lies one whose name was writ in water’, a lovely gravestone is that of sculptor William Wetmore Story and his wife with the statue of the grieving angel.

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Cimitero Acattolico | Art & culture, Relaxing | Donation € 2.00
Via Caio Cestio 6 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065741900
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 17:00, Sun 09:00 – 13:00 (last entrance 16:30 & 12:30)

I had never been to this park until recently. I had seen some of the aqueducts from the train when going South, but I never knew it was a park. Technically, the Parco degli Acquedotti is part of the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica but it isn’t all that immediate to think of it in that way since it is a bit removed and sandwiched in between Via Appia Nuova and Via Tuscolana. Anyway, its peculiarity -as its name suggests- are the numerous ruins of the various Roman aqueducts and these are simply breathtaking.

A stroll in this park, in addition to being extremely pleasant, can be the best way to rapidly review the last 2000 years of this city, almost a trip through time which will take you from the glory of the first years of the Roman Empire to the recent years of a neighborhood in the peripheries.

So, as one admires the ruins of the Aqueduct Claudio (52 AD), restored by Pope Hadrian I (776 AD), pillaged to obtain building material in the 15th century, one may happen to run into a pile of rocks with some flowers which may have been placed there by some dog-owner to commemorate some dog his pet (2006), or a flock of small parrots which have claimed this unusual habitat for them (2008).

Amongst old hamlets, ruins, meadows, flowers, common and less common people, relax and meditate on the interpretation of time, history and human nature that this park can inspire.

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The Acqueducts | Art & culture, Relaxing
Via Lemonia | Appio Tuscolano | +39065135314
Sunrise – sunset daily

Villa Doria Pamphilj is the “green lung” of Rome. It is Rome’s largest park and a shot of oxygen when life in Rome gets too stressful and smoggy. Indeed, Villa Pamphilj is an all-time favorite for Romans to go running, go for a bike ride, take a stroll, walk their dog, or have a picnic.

Like many other city parks, Villa Pamphilj was originally the countryside estate of a noble Roman family, which in more recent times became property of the Rome Council. It is an interesting, diversified park, with beauties of historical and artistic interest, as well as areas of naturalistic interest. An intriguing, curved bridge over the busy traffic of the Via Olimpica connects the two spirits of this park.

On the eastern side, you will find the civilized, historical part with the villa, its statues, fountains and landscaped gardens. On the western side, you will find the wilder and more natural section with its striking vegetation and unexpected fauna.

Additionally, Villa Pamphilj has one of the most active runners’ communities in Rome. I keep telling myself that it would be nice to join the groups of joggers of all ages who run here daily. There is even a gathering point with showers and dressing-rooms. Needless to say, this thought remains one of my resolutions and, for now, I will join the myriads of other Romans who simply lie in the sun.

Park entrances: Via Aurelia Antica, Via Leone XIII (Olimpica), Via della Nocetta, Via Vitellia & Via di Porta S. Pancrazio

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Villa Doria Pamphilj | Art & culture, Relaxing
Via Leone XIII (Olimpica) | Vatican & Prati
Sunrise – sunset

The city of Rome isn’t bike-friendly yet but luckily some of its parks are. One of these parks is the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica and, every once in a while, on Sundays, when it shuts down to traffic, I like to ride my bike there.

It has some excellent bike-routes which will allow you to get some good exercise while admiring beautiful sites of historical and artistic interest. You can choose to ride along the ‘queen of all roads’ the Appian Way, or along one of the different trails in the greener and wilder sections of the park, such as the Caffarella Valley or the Tormarancia estate.

On the Appia Antica, I think the most striking part is really the actual road –the cobblestones. They are simply amazing and beautiful. I also like the milestones. Here you really appreciate –physically understand- the true meaning of a milestone. If you choose one of the other trails, you will find yourself immersed in nature just at a stone’s throw from the city. In fact, you can watch the line where the buildings of the city stop and the green protected area begins.

Unlike Villa Borghese or Villa Pamphilj which are comely due to their aristocratic origin, the Caffarella and Tormarancia sections make this one of the more ‘natural’ parks of Rome. Here, you will find meadows, bushes, hills, ditches, hamlets, caves, a fully functional farmhouse, sheep, a river and springs –all interspersed with Roman ruins. Now, this is truly a bike ride!

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Parco Regionale | Art & culture, Relaxing | Bike for a day € 10.00
Via Appia Antica 42 | Appio Tuscolano | +39065135314
Park:sunrise – sunset daily | Bike rental: Sun & holidays 09:30 – 17:30

The Tiber is not an impressive river by all means. Any other river in other European capital is much more striking in terms of sheer size or width. Yet, the Tiber is an interesting river. It is not a boring river that simply flows slowly through its city without doing anything! No, the Tiber is an eclectic little river which surprises you with rapids, low points, a small waterfall, vegetation on its sides, an island and lots of different bridges, including a broken one.

Yes, Ponte Rotto (a.k.a. Pons Aemilius), literally Broken Bridge, is one of the small peculiarities which make the Tiber such an interesting little river. What other city river has a fragment of a bridge standing in its course? I am told that the river in Genova does but that’s besides the point. Ponte Rotto is a small gem, often disregarded in Rome’s treasure trunk with more important jewels. Romans go by their busy day and rarely look at it, tourists have more important sites to visit in their two-day tour of the city.

Yet, Ponte Rotto is well worth a small pause. It is there, useless, yet beautiful in its decadence. Stones at its feet, weeds springing from its cracks, it sits proud and glorious, even if younger, stronger, more efficient bridges have taken over the job. It is powerless, injured, yet alive and willing to speak to anyone bothering to take a moment to admire it.

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Ponte Rotto | Art & culture, Relaxing | Free
Best admired from Isola Tiberina | City center
Best time to admire: sunset

I stumbled across this piazza unexpectedly a few years ago. I was on my motorino, on the way to somewhere else and, all of sudden, among the tight-knit housing buildings, space opens up to a large square and an enormous church.

I stop and take a look at this entirely new environment no one has ever told me about, after over three decades of being a Roman. The piazza is something of a déjà-vu. Its whole ‘feng shui’ is influenced by the colossal presence of the church, with Fascist-era looking buildings all around, cold and a bit gloomy.

All this, however, contrasts with the vitality of the gardens at the center: there are elderly people chatting on lawn chairs, mothers pushing strollers and kids playing football completely oblivious to their surroundings. I like this piazza and I recommend it.

Obviously, there are tons of churches and piazzas in Rome and most are of greater historical and artistic significance than Piazza Don Bosco and its church.

However, this is a good place to visit if you’d like a taste of life in the peripheries of Rome. Take a stroll here and sit on the park benches. A note on the area: this neighborhood sprung up with the creation of the Cinecittà Film Studios and the Don Bosco Church right after WWII.

The church was inaugurated in 1957. Fellini used this piazza as the setting for some scenes of La Dolce Vita since it was close to the studios and resembled the Rome’s EUR neighborhood.

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Piazza Don Bosco | Art & culture, Relaxing | Free
Piazza Don Bosco | Appio Tuscolano
Optimal time to visit: afternoon