From bikes to Berninis

The Villa Borghese is Rome's version of Central Park—only with more museums

Rome's greatest central green lung is the Villa Borghese park, 226 acres of gardens, statue- and bust-lined paths, fountains, and artificial lakes—which, thsi being Rome, also contains a trio of top museums (the best, Galleria Borghese, is among my top three favorite little museums in the world, positively crammed with Caravaggios and Berninis). You can rent bikes, or rent a paddleboat on the small lake with its teensy 19th-century Greek-style temple on a mini-island.

The Villa Borghese is sub-divided into several different park areas; make sure you make time for the terraced 19th-century Pincio Gardens rising above Piazza del Popolo; great views and a nifty old merry-go-round..

Kids overwhelmed by too many churches and museum might enjoy a break at the the newly revamped Bioparco (zoo), retooled from a zoo of cages to a biological garden of natural habitat enclosures which primarily house endangered species and injured animals that are being rehabilitated to return to the wild.

It has become a teaching zoo, with placards at each endangered or threatened animal's enclosure that show via pictograms what threat the animal faces in the wild (climate changes, pollution, habitat destruction, hunting, etc.); the bears, wolves, lions, and apes are especially popular. (I always get a charge out of suddenly seeing wolves pacing past me when I tool by the outer fence on a rented bicycle.)