The Pincio, which looks out over Piazza del Popolo, has once again become a place for leisure-time strollers, children and tourists. It has now been restored after several years of abandon during excavations for the proposed Pincio car park.

The present mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, shelved the project for the car park soon after he took office in 2008, after important sixth century BC Roman remains were unearthed down to a depth of nine metres over a large area of the planned car park. A part of the archaeological finds, which included a sophisticated thermal structure, have been restored and are now visible to the public.

The original idea for the Pincio goes back to Napoleonic times, but it wasn