Just outside Porta Santo Stefano on the southern edge of the old city walls, the Giardini Margherita is the city's main park — laid out in 1879 in the loose English landscape style. Boulevards loop past lawns, a small lake with rowing boats, an Etruscan tomb relocated here for display, and the Serre dei Giardini, a former greenhouse complex now used as a bar and cultural centre.
Bolognese use the park heavily on summer evenings, when the temperature in the city centre is brutal. The kiosks around the lake serve food and drinks from late afternoon until midnight. The park is twenty minutes' walk from Piazza Maggiore through Porta Santo Stefano.