Rome's rose garden was once located near the Colosseum.

Rome's municipal rose garden, or Roseto Comunale, is located on the eastern side of the Aventine hill, overlooking the Circus Maximus.

Home to around 1,200 different varieties of rose, the gardens are open free of charge from late April until mid-June each year, and often for a couple of weeks in October.

The higher section of the gardens feature a collection of classic specimens while the lower part of the garden contains the roses in the prestigious Premio Roma, the annual international competition, held each May, to judge the most beautiful rose in the capital.

The public rose gardens date back to 1931 when the American countess Mary Gayley Senni succeeded in securing from the city authorities a site on the Oppian hill near the Colosseum, which contained about 300 plants.

Two years later the countess's efforts paid off again when the city established the Premio Roma contest.

The original garden was destroyed during world war two but in 1950 the roses bloomed once more at the garden’s present site, the former home of the Jewish graveyard which transferred to the cemetery at Campo Verano in 1934.

The Roseto Comunale is on Via di Valle Murcia 6, close to the Circo Massimo stop on the metro B line. For information tel. 065746810.