Middle Park

Bordering St Kilda and Albert Park on the southern fringes of the Garden City, Middle Park is within walking distance of some of Melbourne's showcases. With its lake, jogging and cycling tracks, public golf course and BBQs, Albert Park - home to the Australian Formula One Grand Prix - is a mid-city oasis for both families and sports enthusiasts. Across the park and you are into Toorak and the world-ranked Royal Botanic Gardens. Beyond the gardens lie the very impressive Government House and the equally famous Melbourne Cricket Ground and its attendant Australian Gallery of Sport whose extraordinary array of memorabilia and relics date back to the first modern Olympics held at Olympia in 1896. The MCG, of course, hosted the 1956 Olympic Games and is currently undergoing another controversial facelift that will increase the capacity to a comfortable, 100,000-plus at the cost of some bricks and mortar of history. But while some things might change in the gracious city of Melbourne, nothing dims the enduring enchantment of nearby Fitzroy Gardens.