Square, Plaza sights in Italy
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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…
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St Mark's Square
Napoleon dubbed it the 'finest drawing room in Europe', and visitors and pigeons alike have been flocking here for centuries to strut and crow. There is a constant carnival atmosphere thanks to the cacophony of duelling cafe orchestras, cooing pigeons, and constant traffic of waiters serving alfresco diners.
Now that most visitors arrive in Venice via the railway station, the magical symbolism of the waterside Piazzetta San Marco has to a great extent been lost.
The piazzetta's two columns bear emblems of the city's patron saints: the winged lion of St Mark and the figure of St Theodore. From the Campanile (bell tower), you can enjoy breathtaking views. St Mark's Square…
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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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Piazza del Duomo
The geographical heart of Lecce is the Piazza del Duomo, although it feels cut off from the city. It's a clever trick, intended by the architects who designed it; first they set it back down a small alley off the main corso, then they enclosed it with operatic buildings, leaving just one narrow access flanked by imposing entrance piers. In the past this could be closed by a huge oak door, although that is long gone.
It is quite ingenious, and even now as you walk into the square you experience a feeling of wonder as the drama of the piazza reveals itself to you.
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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 Maggiore
Flanked by the world's fifth-largest basilica and a series of impressive Renaissance palazzi, Piazza Maggiore is the city's principal focus and an obvious starting point for sightseeing. A lively pedestrian hub through which you'll find yourself passing several times, it was laid out in the 13th century.
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Piazza Trieste e Trento
Cocktail-sipping poseurs and packs of flirting teens make this an essential city pitstop. Grab a lemon granita from the hole-in-the-wall acquaiolo (drink stall) and take in the famous locals, which include the Palazzo Reale, Teatro San Carlo and legendary Caffè Gambrinus.
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Piazza Castello
Turin's central square shelters a wealth of museums, theatres and cafés. Essentially baroque, the grand piazza was laid out from the 14th century to serve as the seat of dynastic power for the House of Savoy.
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Fontana di Nettuno
In the centre of Piazza del Duomo is the Fontana di Nettuno, a splashing 18th-century fountain dedicated to the trident-wielding Neptune.
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Rialto
Rivoalto (later contracted to Rialto), the highest spot in the collection of islets that formed the nucleus of the lagoon city, was one of the areas of first settlement - although the more active part was initially on the San Marco side of the bridge. The San Polo side slowly gained the ascendance and became the centre of trade and banking for the Republic. This is where dosh traded hands, voyages were bankrolled, insurance was arranged and news (or gossip) was exchanged.
The area continues to buzz with the activity of the daily produce and fish markets - why break the habit of 700 years? The Fabbriche Vecchie (Old Buildings), along the Ruga degli Orefici, were created by…
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Piazza del Gesù Nuovo
Flanked by the spiky Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo and the Basilica di Santa Chiara, this lively square is one of Naples' most beautiful. For hundreds of years it was the principal western entrance to the city. But it wasn't until two major modifications in the 16th century that the piazza took on its current proportions.
Firstly, Ferrante Sanseverino knocked down the houses that were blocking his beautiful 15th-century palazzo (later to become the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo) and in one fell swoop cleared the square's northern flank. Some years later, Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo demolished the Angevin city gate and once again moved the city walls westwards.
At its centre…
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Palazzo Simi
Since 1999 Bari's Archaeological Operations Centre has been housed in Palazzo Simi, and until the new archaeological museum opens its doors in Santa Scolastica, the small archaeological exhibition here provides a reasonable idea of the city's history.
The palace itself is something of museum piece given there are remains of a 9th to 10th century church you can visit in the basement. The three apses are clearly distinguished, as are the remains of the altar and some fragments of fresco depicting the Fathers of the Church. Arranged over the ground floor it takes you through the early days of the city's foundation, from a model of what the initial settlement would have…
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Piazza Satta
A brief walk northwest up Via Satta will bring you to Piazza Satta, the square dedicated to the great poet Sebastiano Satta (1867-1914), who was born in a house here. In true Nuoro style the town felt that a cultural memorial was necessary and commissioned sculptor Costantino Nivola (1911-88) to come up with something.
Nivola whitewashed the square to provide a blank background for a series of granite sculptures that rise up like menhirs. Each sculpture has a carved niche containing a small bronze figurine (a clear wink at the prehistoric bronzetti) depicting a character from Satta's poems. It was a typically unusual idea and must originally have been an impressive sight.…
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Borgo San Frediano
Just north of Piazza del Carmine stretches Borgo San Frediano. The street and surrounding area have, to a degree, retained their feel of a working-class quarter where small-scale artisans have beavered away over the centuries. Many continue to do so.
At the western end of the street stands the lonely Porta San Frediano, one of the old city gates left in place when the walls were demolished in the 19th century. Before you reach the gate, you'll notice the unpolished feel of the area neatly reflected in the unadorned brick walls of the Chiesa di San Frediano in Cestello, whose incomplete façade hides a restrained version of a baroque interior. The western side of Piazza di…
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Piazza San Domenico Maggiore
For some unexplained reason, this airy square is a hit with dreadlocked Spaniards. Along with local students and foreign tourists, they flock here for a late-night beer, cigarette and chat.
Headed by the Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore and flanked by imposing palazzi, the piazza was a series of humble kitchen gardens until the 15th century when the Aragonese decided to make San Domenico their royal church. In the 17th century, various aristocrats built their townhouses around the square. At its centre sits the very baroque Guglia di San Domenico. Decorated by Cosimo Fanzago and completed in 1737 by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, it was a token of gratitude to San Domenico for…
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Piazza del Mercato
Where cars now park, heads once rolled. For centuries, this scruffy square was the site of gruesome public executions, including that of Conrad of Swabia and those of over 200 ill-fated supporters of the 1799 Parthenopean Republic. Equally grim is its honour as the starting spot for the devastating plague of 1656. The square sits at the easternmost point of the city's old medieval wall.
To the north shines the green- and yellow-tiled dome of the boarded-up Chiesa di Santa Croce al Mercato, while in the southwest corner you'll find a bizarre pyramid supported by four curious creatures. Only one remains intact - with the head of puffy-cheeked girl and the body of a lion.
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Piazza dei Miracoli
No Tuscan sight is more immortalised in kitsch souvenirs than the iconic tower teetering on the edge of this famous piazza, which is also known as the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) or Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square). The piazza’s expansive green lawns provide an urban carpet on which Europe’s most extraordinary concentration of Romanesque buildings – in the form of Cathedral, Baptistry and Tower – are arranged. Two million visitors every year mean that crowds are the norm, many arriving by tour bus from Florence for a whirlwind visit.
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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 del Ferrarese
Piazza del Ferrarese, named after the Ferrara merchant Stefano Fabri who lived here in the 17th century, provides an elegant entrance to the old town. On your left are the rounded arches of Sala Murat which holds minor contemporary art exhibitions, and on your right is the old indoor fish market. The piazza is lined with bars and cafés, an old section of roman road roped off in the middle. To the north it merges imperceptibly into another set-piece piazza, Piazza Mercantile.
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Villa Valmarana ‘Ai Nani’
Villa Valmarana ‘ai Nani is covered with sublime 1757 frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo and his son Giandomenico. Giambattista painted the Palazzina wing with his signature mythological epics, while his son painted the Foresteria with fanciful, themed rural, carnival and Chinese rooms. Nicknamed ‘ai Nani’ (gnomes) for the 17 garden gnome statues around the garden walls, this estate is a superb spot for a summer concert; check dates online.
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Piazza del Popolo
Just try to walk through the Piazza del Popolo without feeling compelled to sit on medieval building steps and write a postcard home. This town centre is one of the most renowned squares in all of Italy. Its lugubrious medieval cathedral and buildings cradle the interior piazza, enclosed with four gates during the medieval years but now filled with bustling shops, cappuccino-sipping residents and travellers gazing in wonder at living history.
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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 Municipio
Dominated by the iconic Castel Nuovo, Piazza Municipio isn't looking its best at the moment as construction continues on the new metro system. At the head of the square stands the 19th-century Palazzo San Giacomo. Attached to it is the 16th-century Chiesa San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, burial place of 16th-century Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo and his wife Maria. On the northern flank stands the Teatro Mercadante, a local theatre heavyweight.
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Largo San Giovanni Maggiore
Dominating the western flank of this fetching little square is Giovanni da Nola's impressive 16th-century Palazzo Giusso, home to the Istituto Universitario Orientale. Facing this is the Chiesa San Giovanni Pappacoda, whose original 15th-century structure barely survived the attentions of an 18th-century makeover. Antonio Baboccio's Gothic portal remains, along with a bell tower constructed out of tufa, marble and piperno stone.
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Piazza del Comune
Like most Lombard towns, Cremona was an independent comune until the 14th century, when the Viscontis of Milan added it to their growing collection. To maintain the difference between the secular and spiritual, buildings connected with the Church were erected on the eastern side of Piazza del Comune, and those concerned with secular affairs were constructed across the way. On Sundays, the piazza is filled with antique stalls.
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