Square, Plaza sights in Rome
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Trevi Fountain
Immortalised by Anita Ekberg’s dip in La Dolce Vita, the Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi) is Rome’s largest and most famous fountain. The flamboyant baroque ensemble was designed by Nicola Salvi in 1732 and depicts Neptune’s chariot being led by Tritons with sea horses – one wild, one docile – representing the moods of the sea. The water comes from the aqua virgo, a 1st-century-BC underground aqueduct, and the name Trevi refers to the tre vie (three roads) that converge at the fountain. The famous custom is to throw a coin into the fountain, thus ensuring your return to the Eternal City. According to the same tradition if you throw in a second coin you’ll fall …
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Piazza del Popolo
For centuries the sight of public executions, this elegant neoclassical piazza is a superb people-watching spot. It was originally laid out in 1538 to provide a grandiose entrance to the city – at the time, and for centuries before, it was the main northern gateway into the city. Since then it has been extensively altered, most recently by Giuseppe Valadier in 1823. Guarding its southern entrance are Carlo Rainaldi’s twin 17th-century baroque churches, Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Chiesa di Santa Maria in Montesanto, while over on the northern flank is the Porta del Popolo, created by Bernini in 1655. In the centre, the 36m-high Egyptian obelisk was moved he…
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Piazza Navona
With its ornate fountains, baroque palazzi and pavement cafés, Piazza Navona is central Rome’s showcase square. Like many of the city’s great landmarks, it sits on the site of an ancient monument, in this case the 1st-century-AD Stadio di Domiziano. This 30,000-seat stadium, remains of which can be seen from Piazza Tor Sanguigna, used to host games – the name Navona is a corruption of the Greek word agon, meaning public games. Inevitably, though, it fell into disrepair and it wasn’t until the 15th century that the crumbling arena was paved over and Rome’s central market transferred here from Campidoglio.
Today interest centres on Bernini’s extravagant Fontana…
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Piazza di Spagna & the Spanish Steps
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 visitors on the Grand Tour and was known to locals as er ghetto de l’inglesi (the English ghetto).
The piazza was named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, although the staircase, designed by the Italian Francesco de Sanctis and built in 1725 with a legacy from the French, leads to the French Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti.
At the foot of the steps, the fountain of a sinking boat, the Barcaccia (1627), is believed to be by Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous Gian Lo…
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Trastevere
Although its traditionally proletarian nature is changing as the crumbling palazzi become gentrified, a stroll among the labyrinthine alleys of Trastevere still reaps small gems of a bygone past. Washing strung out from the apartments in best Mama-leone tradition has everyone sighing and reaching for the Kodaks.
The lovely Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere is the area's heart. It's a true Roman square - by day peopled by mothers with strollers, chatting locals and guidebook-toting tourists, by night with artisans selling their craft work, young Romans looking for a good time, and the odd homeless person looking for a bed. The streets east of the piazza is where you'll find…
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St Peter's Square
From above, Piazza San Pietro looks like a giant keyhole. The square's creator, Bernini, described the double colonnade as 'the motherly arms of the church'. He'd planned for the square to gob-smack pilgrims as they emerged from the tangle of medieval streets, an effect spoilt when Mussolini bulldozed Via della Conciliazione through the area. Caligula shipped in the central obelisk from Heliopolis, and it was later used by Christian-culling Nero as a turning post at his chariot-racing circus.
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Piazza del Campidoglio
Designed by Michelangelo in 1538, this graceful piazza is one of Rome’s most beautiful. The most dramatic approach is via the Cordonata, the graceful staircase that leads up from Piazza d’Ara Coeli. At the top of the stairs, the piazza is bordered by three palazzi:Palazzo Nuovo to the left, Palazzo Senatorio straight ahead and Palazzo dei Conservatori on the right. Together, Palazzo Nuovo and Palazzo dei Conservatori house the Capitoline Museums, while Palazzo Senatorio is home to Rome’s city council. In the centre, the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is a copy. The original, which dates from the 2nd century AD, was in the piazza from 1538 until 1981, wh…
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Piazza Colonna
Together with Piazza di Montecitorio, this stylish piazza is Rome’s political nerve centre. On its northern flank, the 16th-century Palazzo Chigi has been the official residence of Italy’s prime minister since 1961. Rising 30m above the piazza, the Colonna di Marco Aurelio was completed in AD 193 to honour Marcus Aurelius’ military victories. The vivid reliefs depict scenes from battles against the Germanic tribes (169–173) and, further up, the Sarmatians (174–176). In 1589 Marcus was replaced on the top of the column with a bronze statue of St Paul. South of the piazza, in Piazza di Pietra, is the Tempio di Adriano. Eleven huge Corinthian columns, now embedded …
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Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro
Dubbed the Square Colosseum, the Palace of the Workers is EUR’s architectural icon, a rationalist masterpiece clad in gleaming white travertine. Designed by Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Bruno La Padula and Mario Romano, and built between 1938 and 1943, it consists of six rows of nine arches, rising to a height of 50m. According to some, these numbers are a homage to the project’s Fascist patron, with the six rows reflecting the six letters of Benito and the nine arches the nine letters of Mussolini. The palazzo is currently undergoing restoration and will house a new multimedia museum when it reopens.
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Piazza del Quirinale
A wonderful spot to enjoy a glowing Roman sunset, this bare and uneven piazza marks 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 rearing horses. It’s not much of a show, but if you’re in the neighbourhood on a Sunday you can catch the weekly changing of the guard (6pm in summer, 4pm the rest of the year). More dramatic by far is the classical-music concert staged here on New Year’s Eve.
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Piazza Vittorio Emanuele Il
Laid out in the late 19th century as the centrepiece of an upmarket residential district, Rome’s biggest square is a noisy, brash affair surrounded by speeding traffic, porticoes and bargain stores. Within the fenced-off central section are the ruins of Trofei di Mario, once a fountain at the end of an aqueduct. In the northern corner, the Chiesa di Sant’Eusebio is popular with pet-owners who bring their animals to be blessed on St Anthony’s feast day (17 January). The square itself hosts cultural festivals throughout the year and an outdoor film festival in the summer.
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Piazza Barberini
More a traffic thoroughfare than a place to linger, this noisy square is named after the Barberini family, one of Rome’s great dynastic clans. In the centre, the Bernini-designed Fontana del Tritone (Fountain of the Triton) depicts the sea-god Triton blowing a stream of water from a conch while seated in a large scallop shell supported by four dolphins. Bernini also crafted the Fontana delle Api (Fountain of the Bees) in the northeastern corner, again for the Barberini family, whose crest featured three bees in flight.
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Piazza della Repubblica
Flanked by grand neoclassical colonnades, this landmark piazza was laid out as part of Rome’s post-unification makeover. It follows the lines of the semicircular exedra (benched portico) of Diocletian’s baths complex and was originally known as Piazza Esedra. In the centre, the Fontana delle Naiadi aroused puritanical ire when it was unveiled by architect Mario Rutelli in 1901. The nudity of the four naiads or water nymphs, who surround the central figure of Glaucus wrestling a fish, was considered too provocative.
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Quartiere Coppedè
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 between 1913 and 1926. At its heart is whimsical Piazza Mincio and the Fontana delle Rane (Fountain of the Frogs), a modern take on the better known Fontana delle Tartarughe in the Jewish Ghetto.
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Portico d’Ottavia
To the east of the Ghetto is the archaeological area of the Portico d’Ottavia, the oldest quadriporto (four-sided porch) in Rome. The columns and fragmented pediment once formed part of a vast rectangular portico, supported by 300 columns, that measured 132m by 119m. Erected by a builder called Octavius in 146 BC, it was rebuilt in 23 BC by Augustus, who kept the name in honour of his sister Octavia. From the Middle Ages until the late 19th century, the portico housed the city’s fish market.
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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 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, young Romans and out-of-towners, all out for a good time. The fountain in the centre of the square is of Roman origin and was restored by Carlo Fontana in 1692.
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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 (h07:30-12:30 & 15:00-19:15) and its deceptive trompe l'oeil ceiling perspective by Andrea Pozzo in the 'dome'.
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Palazzo Doria Pamphilj
Just north of Piazza Venezia is the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, home to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. You wouldn’t know it from the grimy exterior but this palazzo houses one of Rome’s richest private art collections, with works by Raphael, Tintoretto, Brueghel, Titian, Caravaggio, Bernini and Velázquez.
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