The Orto Botanico in Rome's Trastevere district offers a beautiful escape from the bustle of the city’s streets. For images of paradise, visitors flock to the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums. Yet the Orto Botanico, its azure flecked with parakeets – a recent invasive species – provides an earthly alternative for which you needn’t stand in line.

From Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere turn right into Via della Lungara and then left into Via Corsini where a magnificent magnoglia grandiflora vies for height with the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica (also known as Galleria Corsini).