Fountains and Squares, Downhill from Trinità dei Monti

Piazza della Trinità dei Monti, 6, Roma

In front of the hotel in Piazza Trinità dei Monti.

meeting point in front of the hotel Hassler

Meeting point in front of the Hotel Hassler.

Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps connect the Pincio above with Piazza di Spagna below, across what was once a bare, steep, muddy slope. Francesco De Sanctis built them between 1723 and 1726 for Cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin, and Benedict XIII opened them for the Jubilee of 1725. They are travertine, eleven flights of twelve steps each, splitting and curving and rejoining, changing direction the whole way up. The balustrades break the climb and double as places to sit and look. The staircase linked a strongly French quarter above to the Spanish one below, and it has always worked as much as a meeting place as a route.

Spanish Steps

Piazza di Spagna is among the most visited squares in Rome, with the Barcaccia fountain at its centre, designed and carved in Baroque style by Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It sits in the Campo Marzio, and its plan is a butterfly: two triangles meeting at their points. Around it are palaces, grand hotels, restaurants and designer shops. Via Condotti, via del Babuino and via Borgognona run off it, which is where the shopping happens.

Trevi Fountain

The best known of Rome's fountains, named either for the three streets meeting at the square or for the three outlets of the original fountain. Clement XII chose Nicola Salvi's design in 1732 from among the projects submitted. Oceanus stands at the centre on a shell chariot, drawn by one horse rearing and one calm, held back by two tritons. The coin before you leave brings you back to Rome, by custom. A second and third, in one version of the story, bring romance and a wedding.

Pantheon

The best preserved piece of Roman monumental architecture there is. The first temple to all the gods was built here in 27 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The building standing today is Hadrian's, finished between 125 and 128 AD, larger than the original, turned to face the other way and fronted by a new colonnaded square. The circular room is enclosed by thick walls and eight great piers that carry the weight of the concrete dome, whose diameter is greater than that of St Peter's. The proportions are the surprise: the height of the interior equals the diameter of the dome, just over 43 metres, so a sphere would fit exactly inside it.

Costo extra

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is the most complete Baroque set piece in the city. The buildings around it went up on the remains of the Stadium of Domitian and kept its shape and its dimensions, so the square still traces the perimeter of the arena built for athletics and horse racing. Sant'Agnese in Agone dominates one side, begun by Carlo and Girolamo Rainaldi and finished by Borromini, who altered it considerably. Beside it stands Palazzo Pamphilj, and opposite, the church of Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore, also called San Giacomo degli Spagnoli. Three fountains: the Fontana del Moro, the Fontana de' Calderari or Fountain of Neptune, and Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers.