Via Veneto and Villa Borghese
The Via Veneto in its ’50s and ’60s glory days was once lined with cocktail palaces, Alfa Romeo sports cars and the glamorous traffic of starlets immortalized by Fellini in his film La Dolce Vita. These days it’s the haunt of wide-eyed tourists buying T-shirts from the Hard Rock Café and looking for some bygone glitz over an americano cocktail. The high-octane nightlife may have waned but the ashes are still there in the Jackie O nightclub, an entertaining if a little staid glimpse into the history book of Roman nightclubbing. Whether related or not, most of the city’s options for adult entertainment lurk in these parts, as well as a crop of the most luxuriant hotels such as the Eden, Aleph and the historic Rome Palace.
The strip extends north up to the leafy Villa Borghese, past the Piazza di Siena at the mouth of the park, with its random mix of showjumping arena, hot-air balloon and underground car park cum nightclub complex.
At the beginning of the 17th century it was the dream of the illustrious Cardinal Scipione Borghese to turn the family vineyards and surrounding lands into a baroque pleasure park, or a ‘Theatre of the Universe’, giving birth to the Villa Borghese, which is now a public park. Once intended as an impressive display for diplomats and heads of state, the Borghese, with its art galleries, aviary, exotic plants and curiosities, attracts less regal visitors these days – mostly tourists and families taking advantage of one of the few green lungs in the city centre. Although the grass is a little scrubby (there’s better park life to be had at the Villa Doria Pamphili on the Janiculum hill) bike rides are a popular weekend activity and the views from the Pincio hill over the city’s rooftops are exhilarating.
Ambassadorial villas still lurk behind the trees of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna and there’s a palpable sense of quiet refinement at the Michelin-starred restaurant Baby in the grounds of the Aldovrandi Palace hotel.
Northern Rome is becoming increasingly more fashionable with the city’s young guns, although the bad transport links make it a little dislocated for visitors to explore with ease.
Trendy restaurants Mezzo, Tiepolo and Duke’s Bar all lie north of the city’s gate behind the Piazza del Popolo, along with the Stadium and the Auditorium. This is also where MAXXI, Rome’s work-in-progress museum of contemporary art, is situated. The Via Salaria was an ancient salt trail which even pre-exists Rome itself, but is now a residential district surrounded by embassies and the leafy public gardens of Villa Ada. More contemporary art can be found around the Via Nomentana at the MACRO art gallery, which occupies the old Peroni beer factory.
