In the 1970s the park became a place of innovation and change - it was here that Franco Basaglia and his co-workers sparked a revolution of international reach in the field of psychiatry.
The hospital and the park were opened to the city: the patients were free to leave and the city's residents were free to enter.

Today the park and city shine as a meeting place of social enterprises, welfare and creative activities, cultural projects and further education; a place where ideas are exchanged, a symbolic place where new ways of "using" the city can be tested amidst splendid architecture, paths, flights of steps, thickets, majestic oaks, lawns and flowerbeds of roses and camellia.

The Rose Garden in San Giovanni Park is one of the largest in Italy, with almost 5,000 varieties of roses, including numerous European, American and Japanese varieties, and others dedicated to famous figures.

Visitors entering via the park's lower entrance can wander through an enchanting trail of tracks, stairways and tree-lined paths, leading through beds of traditional roses and plants towards the upper section, where the modern roses are located.

As a tribute to the days when the former psychiatric hospital was built, there is also a collection of Art Nouveau roses, planted in symmetrical mirror-image flowerbeds bordering the path, and arches covered with climbing roses popular at that time. 

The largest part of the rose garden is located in the broad, sunny terraced area at the extreme north-east of the park. It is devoted to the familiar modern roses, including hybrid teas, bouquet roses and climbers, interspersed with clematis and ornamental grasses.