Attractions

Rome Architecture – Piazzas

Rome 's many Piazzas are a great place to gaze at Rome architecture, whether it's simple tenant buildings or Bernini's famous fountains. Amidst all this incredible Rome architecture and culture the piazzas are also a great place to have a latte and mingle with fellow travelers or locals.

Piazza Barberini
Junction of Via del Tritone, Via Veneto , Via Quattro Fontane, and Via Sistina, Rome , Italy.

One of Rome 's more modern quarters, this district was built during the late-19th-century construction boom on the site of the lush gardens of Villa Ludovisi, a patrician family's estate that had in turn been built over the celebrated ancient Roman gardens of Sallust. The piazza, a picturesque marketplace during the 17th and 18th centuries, has lost its original Rome architecture charm in the rush of progress. Undistinguished modern buildings overshadow the older ones, and traffic circles the Bernini Fontana del Tritone (Triton Fountain). Bernini's baroque centerpiece in Piazza Barberini was created in 1637 for Pope Urban VIII, whose Barberini coat of arms is at the base of the large shell. The fountain's triton blows into his conch shell with gusto, sending an arc of water into the air. In a city of beautiful fountains, this is one of the most vivacious.

Piazza Del Campidoglio
Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy

Thanks to its perfect stability and its harmonious proportions, the piazza del Campidoglio is one the most beautiful of the Renaissance piazzas.

It is situated on the Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills on which Rome has been built. This hill was (and still is) the most important of the seven, since it was the religious centre of ancient Rome before it became the seat of Rome's government, from the Middle Ages until today.

The place changed dramatically in the 16th century, when Paul III ordered Michelangelo to design a piazza on the Capitol. It took more than a century to complete the project. Three palaces border the place: the Palazzo dei Conservatori on your right handside, the Palazzo Nuovo on your left handside and the Palazzo dei Senatori (city council) in front of you.

The two colossal statues you can see at the end of the monumental steps are art-pieces of the roman period (4th century AD).

Piazza Di San Pietro
West end of Via della Conciliazione, Rome, Italy

St. Peter's Square. Designed by Bernini, it was laid out as a Rome architecture ensemble as a place for the Christians of the world to gather. It is bounded by to semicircular collonades, each of which is made up of four rows of Doric columns. All this prized with 164 holies makes of the piazza the most beautiful piazza of Rome architecture. It is on this piazza that the Pope shows himself each Sunday at midday and blesses the people on the piazza.

The obelisk that stands in the centre of it was brought, from Heliopolis in Egypt to Rome, by Caligula.This square (actually an oval) is the vast main entrance into Vatican territory. It's one of Bernini's most spectacular masterpieces, completed in 1667 after 11 years' work -- a relatively short time in those days, considering the vastness of the task -- and capable of holding 400,000 people. It is surrounded by a curving pair of quadruple colonnades, which are topped by a balustrade and statues of 140 saints. Look for the two disks set into the piazza's pavement on either side of the central obelisk. If you stand on either disk, a trick of perspective makes the colonnades seem to consist of a single row of columns.

Bernini had an even grander visual effect in mind when he designed the square. By opening up this immense, airy, and luminous space in a neighborhood of narrow, shadowy streets, he created a contrast that would surprise and impress anyone who emerged from the darkness into the light, in a characteristically baroque metaphor. But in the 1930s, Mussolini ruined the effect. To celebrate the "conciliation" between the Vatican and the Italian government under the Lateran Treaty of 1929, he conceived of the Via della Conciliazione, the broad, rather soulless avenue that now forms the main approach to St. Peter's and gives the eye time to adjust to the enormous dimensions of the square and church, nullifying Bernini's grand intentions.

The 85-foot-high Egyptian obelisk was probably placed in his circus, believed to have been near here. It was moved to its current site in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V. According to legend, the monumental task of raising it almost ended in disaster when the ropes started to give way. In the absolute silence -- the spectators had been threatened with death if they made a sound -- a voice called "Water on the ropes!" Strengthened by having water poured on them, the ropes held, and thus a Genoese sailor who dared to speak up had saved the day. He was rewarded with the papal promise that thereafter the palms used in St. Peter's Basilica on Palm Sunday should come from Bordighera, the sailor's hometown.

The emblem at the top of the obelisk is the Chigi star, placed here in honor of Alexander VII, a member of the powerful Chigi family who was pope when the piazza was built. Alexander had been categorical in dictating to Bernini his requirements for the design of the piazza. It had to be an example of Rome architecture that would allow the pope to be visible to as many people as possible from the Benediction Loggia and from his Vatican apartments; it had to provide a covered passageway for papal processions; and it had to skirt the various existing buildings of the Vatican, while incorporating the obelisk and the fountain already there. (The fountain was moved to its current position, and a twin fountain was installed to balance it.)

Piazza San Pietro is the scene of large papal audiences as well as special commemorations, masses, and beatification ceremonies. When he is in Rome, the pope makes an appearance every Sunday around 11 AM (call the Vatican Information office to find out if the pope is in town and the exact time) at the window of the Vatican Palace. He addresses the crowd and blesses all present. The pope holds mass audiences on Wednesday morning about 10 (at 9 in the hotter months). Whether or not they are held in the square depends on the weather and sometimes on the pope's health. There is an indoor audience hall adjacent to the basilica. While the pope is vacationing at Castel Gandolfo in the Castelli Romani hills outside Rome, he gives a talk and blessing from a balcony of the papal palace there. For admission to an audience ., apply for free tickets by mail or fax in advance, indicating the date you prefer, the language you speak, and the hotel in which you will stay. Or apply for tickets on the Monday or Tuesday before the Wednesday audience at the Prefettura della Casa Pontifice, open Monday and Tuesday 9-1, which you reach through the Portone di Bronzo (Bronze Door) at the end of the right-hand colonnade. For a fee that includes transportation from your hotel and some sketchy sightseeing along the way, some travel agencies will arrange tickets for an audience. The American Church of Santa Susanna often has free tickets to give away on Tuesday.

On the south side of the square are the Centro Servizi Vaticani (Vatican Information Office, 06/69881662; Mon.-Sat. 8:30-7) and the Vatican Bookshop (Weekdays 8:30-7, Sat. 8:30-2). There are Vatican post offices (known for fast handling of outgoing mail) on both sides of St. Peter's Square and inside the Vatican Museums complex. You can also buy Vatican stamps and coins at the shop annexed to the information office. Although postage rates are the same at the Vatican as elsewhere in Italy, the stamps are not interchangeable, so any post stamped with Vatican stamps must go in a blue or yellow Posta Vaticana box. Public toilets are near the Information Office, under the colonnade opposite, and outside the exit of the crypt. Religious objects and souvenirs are sold at shops in the surrounding neighborhood.

Piazza Di Sagna
Junction of Via Condotti, Via del Babuino, and Via Due Macelli, Rome, Italy

Spanish Steps. This place, known by the entire world, is these days "the" meeting place for young Romans at night. The piazza took its name in the 17th century, when the Spain embassy settled in the Palazzo di Spagna. The Spanish Steps (138 steps) were built in 1725 and lead to the Santissima Trinit ? dei Monti. In May each year the steps are decorated with pink azaleas.Both the piazza here and the steps that ascend from it get their names from the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican on the piazza, opposite the American Express office -- in spite of the fact that the staircase was built with French funds in 1723. A beautiful Rome architecture ensemble, they are in an allusion to the church of Trinità dei Monti at the top of the hill, the staircase is divided by three landings (beautifully banked with azaleas from mid-April to mid-May). This area has always welcomed tourists: 18th-century dukes and duchesses on their Grand Tour, 19th-century artists and writers in search of inspiration -- among them Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Byron -- and today's enthusiastic hordes.

Piazza Navona
Junction of Via della Cuccagna, Corsia Agonale, Via di Sant'Agnese, and Via Agonale, Rome, Italy

This piazza, called by many people "the most beautiful place in the world", takes the place of Domitianus' stadium. The only part of the stadium which remains today is its entrance gate (at the outside of the north of the place). It stands over the ruins of Domitian's circus; you can see a section of the ancient arena's walls by walking out of the long end of the piazza (toward Piazza Sant'Apollinare) and taking a quick left. There, you can see that the level of ancient Rome was much lower than the current one. The stadium was an arena for athletics, boxing, wrestling, etc. The name Navona is the deformation of (Campus) Agonis, which means contest square. Here everything that makes Rome unique is compressed into one beautiful baroque piazza. It has antiquity, Bernini sculptures, a gorgeous fountain (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi), a graceful church (Sant'Agnese in Agone) and, above all, the excitement of people out to enjoy themselves -- strolling, café-sitting, seeing, and being seen. Piazza Navona has been an entertainment venue for Romans down through the centuries. The square still has the carefree air of the days when it was the scene of Roman circus games, medieval jousts, and 17th-century carnivals. Even now it's the site of a lively Christmas fair and the place where revelers gather for many other entertainment events throughout the year.

The piazza dozes in the morning, when small groups of pensioners sun themselves on stone benches and children pedal tricycles around the big fountain. In the late afternoon, the sidewalk cafés fill up for the aperitif hour. In the evening, especially in good weather, Piazza Navona comes to life with a colorful throng of vendors, street artists, tourists, and Romans out for their evening passeggiata (promenade).

Piazza Venezia
Junction of Via del Corso, Via Plebiscito, and Via Cesare Battisti, Rome, Italy

The geographic heart of Rome, this is the spot from which all distances from Rome are calculated, and the principal crossroads of city traffic. Piazza Venezia stands at what was the beginning of Via Flaminia, the ancient Roman road that leads east across Italy to Fano on the Adriatic Sea. Via Flaminia was, and still is, a vital artery. The initial tract of Via Flaminia, from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo, is now known as the Corso (Via del Corso, one of the busiest shopping streets in the city), after the horse races ( corse ) that were run here during the wild Roman carnival celebrations of the 17th and 18th centuries. The podium near the beginning of the Corso is the sometime domain of Rome's most practiced traffic policemen. The massive female bust, a fragment of antiquity near the church of San Marco in the corner of the piazza, is known to the Romans as Madama Lucrezia. It was one of the "talking statues" on which anonymous poets hung verses pungent with political satire, a practice that has not entirely disappeared.

Pincio
Piazzale Napoleone I and Viale dell'Obelisco, Rome, Italy

The Pincio gardens occupy a corner of the Pincian Hill, one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, and they are separated from the southwest corner of Villa Borghese by a stretch of ancient walls. The view from the Pincio terrace is one of Rome's most celebrated, and the gardens are a favorite spot for strolling. Their rather formal, early-19th-century style contrasts with the far more elaborate terraced gardens of Lucullus that once adorned the site. Lucullus, the Roman gourmand, held lush banquets here that were legendary. Pathways are lined with white marble busts of Italian heroes and artists. Along with the similar busts on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill), their noses have been victims of vandalism.

From the balustraded Pincio terrace you can look down at Piazza del Popolo and beyond, surveying much of Rome. Across the Tiber, Via Cola di Rienzo goes through the Prati district toward the heights of Monte Mario. Off to the left are Castel Sant'Angelo and the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. In the foreground is the curve of the Tiber, embracing Old Rome, where the low-slung dome of the Pantheon emerges from a sea of russet-tile rooftops and graceful cupolas. Southeast of the Pincio terrace is the Casina Valadier, a pretty neoclassic building perennially due for renovation and reopening as a restaurant.

Piazza Del Quirinale
Piazza del Quirinale, Rome, Italy

On this beautiful coloured piazza (beautiful sunsets...) you will find the Palazzo del Quirinale, the official resident of the President of the Republic. The palazzo was built in 1574 but underwent many changes until the early 18th century. In the beginning the palace was the summer residence of the popes, before it became the royal palace of Italy's kings in 1870. You can visit the palace on the last Sunday of each month from 9 am to 1 pm. Be there early!