Rome‘s zoo (Bioparco) is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1911 and hosts almost one thousand animals belonging to some 200 different species.
Zoo (Bioparco Rome)
Address, opening times and ticket price
Address: Piazzale del Giardino Zoologico, 1 – Rome. Phone: +39 06 3608211. Opening times: November 1 – March 26 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; March 27 – October 31 from 9:30 to – 6:00 p.m. Closed: December 25th. Ticket price: 16 Euros (discount: 13 Euros; children shorteer than 1 meter: Free.)
History and description
The Bioparco is located inside Rome’s best known park, the Villa Borghese and apart from the usual wild animals there is also an educational farmyard area with local animals like cows, pigs and goats.
The Bioparco also tries to educate by showing, along with the name and description of the various species, two different maps: One showing the animal’s natural habitat, and one showing its natural habitat as it used to be a long time ago, before man interfered. The signs an dexplanations are both in Italian and English.
Signposts indicate the easiest routes inside the zoo and there are picnic areas all over its grounds.
A point of criticism could be that the cages of several of the animals, including some of the bigger ones, are quite small.