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Piazza Colonna
Dominating the northern side of this stylish piazza, Palazzo Chigi (06 677 93 417; www.governo.it in Italian; Piazza Colonna 370; visits on request) has been the official residence of the Presidente del Consiglio, Italy's prime minister, since 1961. The building, off limits unless you've booked a visit, was started in the 16th century by Matteo di Castello and finished more than a 100 years later by Felice della Greca.
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Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta
At the southern end of Via di Santa Sabina, this peaceful little square takes its name from the Cavalieri di Malta (Knights of Malta), who have their Roman headquarters here, in the Priorato dei Cavalieri di Malta. Although it's closed to the public, the priory offers one of Rome's most charming views: Look through the keyhole and you'll see the dome of St Peter's perfectly aligned at the end of a hedge-lined avenue.
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Piazza dei Santissimi Apostoli
A popular place for political demonstrations, this long thin piazza is home to L'Ulivo, Italy's main centre-left political party, and is flanked by impressive baroque palazzi . At the end of the square stands Palazzo Balestra, given to James Stuart, the Old Pretender, in 1719 by Pope Clement XI. Opposite the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli is Palazzo Odelscalchi, with its impressive 1664 façade by Bernini. Only the church is open to the public.
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Piazza del Campidoglio
The magnificent centrepiece of the Campidoglio, Michelangelo's 16th-century piazza is considered by many Rome's most beautiful square. Commissioned by Pope Paul III and designed by Michelangelo in 1538, it took more than a 100 years to build and was completed in the late 17th century. There are various ways to reach it but the most dramatic is via the Cordonata, the graceful staircase that leads up from Piazza d'Aracoeli.
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Piazza del Popolo
Perch yourself on a bench in this vast, vibrant square and you'll see all of Rome pass by: commuters rushing to the metro, excitable adolescents, dressed-to-kill shoppers, flagging tourists, buskers and black-clad carabinieri (police).
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Piazza del Quirinale
A wonderful spot to enjoy a glowing Roman sunset, this bare and uneven piazza sits on the summit of the Quirinale hill. The obelisk in the centre was moved here from the Mausoleo di Augusto in 1786 and is flanked by 5.5m statues of Castor and Pollux reining in a couple of huge rearing horses. Roman copies of 5th-century-BC Greek originals, they were moved from the Baths of Constantine in the 16th century by Pope Sixtus V.
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Piazza della Repubblica
Flanked by grand neoclassical colonnades, Piazza della Repubblica was laid out as part of Rome's postunification makeover. It follows the lines of the semicircular exedra (benched portico) of Diocletian's baths complex and was, in fact, originally known as Piazza Esedra. The Fontana delle Naiadi, in its centre, was designed by Mario Rutelli and features a central figure of Glaucus wrestling a fish, surrounded by four naiads or water nymphs.
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Piazza di Spagna & The Spanish Steps
The favourite flirting ground of Roman teenagers, Piazza di Spagna and the famous Spanish Steps (Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) have been a magnet for foreigners since the 18th century. In the late 1700s the area was much loved by English on the Grand Tour and was known to locals as er ghetto de l'inglesi (the English ghetto). It's busy from early morning until the small hours.
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Piazza Navona
Lined with Baroque palaces, this vast, beautiful piazza was laid out on the ruins of a stadium built by Domitian. In Renaissance times, it would be flooded on festive occasions so mock naval battles could be staged. Used for festivals and sport, including jousts, until the late 15th century, it was then paved over and turned into a marketplace and public square.
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Piazza Sant'Ignazio
When we say that Filippo Raguzzini's 18th-century square steals the stage, we're serious. Resembling a theatrical set, complete with exits into 'the wings' at either end of its northern side, it's also home to 17th-century Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola (h - & - ) and its deceptive trompe l'oeil ceiling perspective by Andrea Pozzo in the 'dome'.
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Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere
Trastevere's focal square is a prime people-watching spot. By day it's full of mums with strollers, chatting locals and guidebook-toting tourists; by night it's the domain of foreign students getting their first taste of la dolce vita and young Romans out for a good time.
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Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II
Rome's biggest square (Piazza San Pietro is in the Vatican and so doesn't count as Rome), Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II was laid out in the late 19th century, shortly after Italian unification. Originally an upmarket residential district, it's now the noisy centre of Rome's most multiethnic district.
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Piramide di Caio Cestio
Sticking out like, well, an Egyptian pyramid, this distinctive landmark stands in the Aurelian Wall at the side of a massive traffic junction. A 36m-high marble-and-brick tomb, it was built for Gaius Cestius, a 1st-century-BC magistrate, and some 200 years later was incorporated into the Aurelian fortification near Porta San Paolo. The surrounding area is today known as Piramide.
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Ponte Milvio
A pretty footbridge with a colourful market on its northern side, Ponte Milvio was the scene of one of the great events in Roman history: Constantine's defeat of Maxentius in AD 312. It was first built in 109 BC to carry Via Flaminia over the Tiber and survived intact until 1849, when Garibaldi's troops blew it up to stop advancing French soldiers. Pope Pius IX had it rebuilt a year later.
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Ponte Sant'Angelo
Hadrian built the Ponte Sant'Angelo across the Tiber in AD 136 to provide an approach to his mausoleum, but it was Bernini who managed to bring it to life. In the 17th century he and his pupils sculpted the figures of angels that now line this pedestrian-only bridge. The three central arches of the bridge are part of the original structure; the end arches were restored and enlarged in 1892-94 during the construction of the Lungotevere embankments.
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Porta Maggiore
Porta Maggiore, also known as Porta Prenestina, was built by Claudius in AD 52. Then, as now, it was a major road junction under which passed the two main southbound roads, Via Prenestina and Via Labicana (modern-day Via Casilina).
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Porta Pia
Porta Pia was Michelangelo's last architectural work, commissioned by Pius IV in 1561. Three centuries later, in 1870, it was the scene of fighting as Italian troops breached the surrounding walls to wrest the city from the pope and incorporate it into a unified Italy.
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Quartiere Coppedè
If Gaudí and the Grimm Brothers had gone into town-planning together, suburbia would probably look like this. Best entered from the corner of Via Tagliamento and Via Dora, this compact quarter is a mesmerising mishmash of Tuscan turrets, Liberty sculptures, Moorish arches, Gothic gargoyles, frescoed façades, and palm-fringed gardens - all designed by little-known Florentine architect Gino Coppedè in the 1920s.
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Spanish Steps
Designed by Italian Francesco De Sanctis, financed by a French diplomat, and named after the nearby Spanish Embassy, Rome's most famous staircase (completed in 1725) keeps it global with daily hordes of camera-clicking tourists, migrant hawkers and crush-struck local teens. Head to the top for Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti, or to the bottom for the boat-shaped Barcaccia (1627) fountain on Piazza di Spagna, attributed to Pietro Bernini (father of the famous Gian Lorenzo).
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Tempietto di Bramante & Chiesa di San Pietro
Considered the first great building of the High Renaissance, Bramante's proportionally perfect Tempietto (little temple) stands in the courtyard of the Chiesa di San Pietro in Montorio, on the spot where St Peter is supposed to have been crucified. Completed in 1508, Bramante's temple is a much-imitated masterpiece of classical proportion and elegance, its circular design based on the style used in many Roman temples.
Read more about Tempietto di Bramante & Chiesa di San Pietro
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