Roma, Italy - October 2022: Narrow Via Margutta street near piazza del Popolo square; Shutterstock ID 2250011871; your: Claire Naylor; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online ed; full: Rome POIs updates
2250011871

© Mistervlad / Shutterstock

Via Margutta

Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale


Lonely Planet's Ultimate Guide

Explore insider tips, fascinating history and surprising secrets to make the most of your experience.

Small antique shops, commercial art galleries and artisanal boutiques are arrayed along Via Margutta, one of Rome's prettiest pedestrian cobbled lanes. Strung with ivy-laced palazzi, the street is named after a 16th-century family of barbers but has long been associated with art and artists: Picasso worked at a gallery at No 54 and the Italian Futurists had their first meeting here in 1917.

Scenic street scene with a building with symetrical doors and windows
Via Margutta is a vibrant center of the arts, with galleries and antique shops © Marco Rubino / Shutterstock

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck spent the night in Joe Badley's apartment at No 51 in the classic movie Roman Holiday (1953). Of the street’s more recent residents, the most famous is film director Federico Fellini, who lived at No 110 with his wife Giulietta Masina until his death in 1993.

Via Margutta continues to be a vibrant center of the arts. Stroll between the vine covered buildings and you’ll come across antique shops and galleries such Sesto Senso, which exhibits works of contemporary local painters, and Dicò, where you’ll find the collection of works by Roman painters Enrico Dicò. Need to refuel? Stop at Osteria Margutta or Babette.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Tridente, Trevi & the Quirinale attractions

1. Casa di Goethe

0.13 MILES

Once a gathering place for German intellectuals, the Via del Corso apartment is where writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe enjoyed a happy Italian sojourn …

2. Villa Medici

0.15 MILES

Built for Cardinal Ricci da Montepulciano in 1540, this sumptuous Renaissance palace was purchased by Ferdinando de' Medici in 1576 and remained in Medici…

6. Piazza del Popolo

0.22 MILES

This massive piazza was laid out in 1538 to provide a grandiose entrance to what was then Rome's main northern gateway. It has since been remodelled…

7. Fontana della Barcaccia

0.23 MILES

This 1627 fountain of a sinking boat is believed to be by Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was supposedly modelled on a…

8. Obelisk

0.23 MILES

Towering over Piazza del Popolo, this 36m-high obelisk was brought to Rome by Augustus from Heliopolis in ancient Egypt. It originally stood in the Circo…