Ciao! My husband and I will be visiting in August and would love to do a bike tour. Unsure which of these areas would be best. Any recommendations for actual tours would be much appreciated. Grazie!
I heartily recommend the Appian Way bike tour by TopBikes. Besides biking on the Appian Way you will tour the catacombs and Aqueduct Park and stop along the way at a goat farm, where you’ll enjoy a snack of bread, fresh pecorino cheese and wine. The groups are small, the guides great, and you can choose a regular or electric assist bike. The same company also offers other bike tours in the city of Rome, but I chose this one because I felt more comfortable touring mostly away from busy Roman streets. I haven’t biked in Borghese Gardens, but I have walked through them. While they are lovely, I think you’ll enjoy the Appian Way tour more because it offers a greater variety of interesting things to see. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
However I would only do the bike tour of the Appian Way on a Sunday when most traffic is restricted. Otherwise it is a zoo.
Google Maps gives you a good indication of what these two are like. The gardens are more open, as you would expect and can see here: https://goo.gl/maps/XVSi1obrRwz
Via Appia Antica is mostly a long, narrow, cobblestoned road, but with interesting stops along the way. Parts of it are open (https://goo.gl/maps/HmRMNmnwML12 ), but parts are restricted by walls on both sides. https://goo.gl/maps/oFciCa1gq9p
Good advice to do VAA on a Sunday, if you can.