Piazze in Rome

Piazze in Rome

The Italian Piazza is the center of the Italian life. Gathering, shopping, eating, reading, people watching are just a few of the activities that Italian's and tourists can be found doing in an Italian piazza. Piazze are often bedecked in beautiful sculptures, fountains and architecture by some of Italy's most famous names such as Bernini. Italian's gathered in their piazze since BC times with markets and to discuss politics and religion. For sure the squares in Rome well represent over 1000 years of history. Today, piazze are often used as scenes in current movies making great highlights for pop-culture travelers. Many metro stations and bus stops are found on piazze as they are key points in a city. When traveling with others, piazze make wonderful meeting places. Rome has many squares that are worth a look. Grab a book and a gelato or simply find a cozy place to people watch.

Piazza Albania

Piazza Albania іs а square іn Rome, Italy. The squares name wаs before Piazza Raudusculana but got іts present name 4 July 1940 аnd wаs named аfter the country Albania - аt the tіme recently invaded аnd conquered аt the command оf Benito Mussolini. The name survived іts Fascist antecedents аnd remains up tо the present.

Piazza D'Aracoeli

Piazza d'Aracoeli was once a market square at the base of Capitoline hill. The market served not just as a place for commerce, but as a stage for politic debates and religious omilies as well. Here in 1442 the words of St. Bernardino of Siena against gambling and usury resounded. Here in 1551 St. Ignatius of Loyola opened his first school of grammar and christian doctrine, from which the Collegio Romano sourced, and held his first spiritual exercises. Here in 1713 Rosa Venerini opened the first roman house of the Maestre Pie Venerini, the first women's public school in Italy. From here it is possible to admire with a single glance the Quirinal Hill, the Trajan's Forum with its column and the Torre delle Milizie at the back, the two churches of Santa Maria di Loreto and of the Santissimo Nome di Maria, Palazzo Venezia and the buildings of the "Angelicum" cloister. The Fountain of Aracoeli is one of the first and simplest of Renaissance fountains that would embellish the city.

Piazza Barberini

Piazza Barberini is a large piazza in the centro storico or city center of Rome, Italy and situated on the Quirinal Hill. It was created in the 16th century but many of the surrounding buildings have subsequently been rebuilt. At the centre of the piazza is the Fontana del Tritone or Triton Fountain sculpted by Bernini. Another fountain, the Fontana delle Api, also by Bernini is in the nearby Via Vittorio Veneto but it has been reconstructed somewhat arbitrarily following its removal from its previous position on the corner of a palace where the Piazza Barberini meets the Via Sistina

Piazza Bocca della Verità

Piazza Bocca della Verità is a square between Via Luigi Petroselli and Via della Greca in Rome (Italy), in the rione Ripa. The square lies in the ancient area of the Forum Boarium, just in front of the Tiber Island; it takes its name from the Bocca della Verità (Italian: Mouth of Truth), placed under the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Besides the church, dating back to the late Middle Ages, the square houses the Arcus Argentariorum, the Arch of Janus, the Temple of Hercules Victor and the Temple of Portunus, a deity related to the ancient river harbor.

Piazza Bocca della Verità: the Temple of Hercules Victor and the Temple of Portunus. The fountain in front of the two temples, called Fountain of the Tritons, released by Carlo Bizzaccheri under commission of Pope Clement XI, was erected in the square in 1715; it has an octagonal basis and portrays two tritons supporting a shell from which the water springs.

Piazza Borghese

The square lies between Via di Ripetta and Via Fontanella Borghese in an area owned for centuries by the House of Borghese. tt is delimited by Palazzo Borghese at north-east, by the Palazzo della Facoltà di Architettura at north-west and by the so-called Palazzo della Famiglia at south-west. The Borgheses settled in the area in the 16th century. Under Pope Paul V (1605-1621) and cardinal Scipione Borghese, they expanded into the area between Via di Ripetta and the church of Saint Jerome of the Croats. The square was a private space adjacent to the family's palace until 19th century.

Campo de' Fiori

Campo de' Fiori is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, at the border between rione Parione and rione Regola. It is just diagonally southeast of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and one block northeast of the Palazzo Farnese. Campo de' Fiori, translated literally from Italian, means "field of flowers". The name was first given during the Middle Ages when the area was actually a meadow. At night, Campo de' Fiori is a meeting place for tourists and young people coming from the whole city.

Piazza Colonna

Piazza Colonna is a piazza at the center of the Rione of Colonna in the historic heart of Rome, Italy. It is named for the marble Column of Marcus Aurelius which has stood there since 193 CE. The bronze statue of Saint Paul that crowns the column was placed in 1589, by order of Pope Sixtus V. The Roman Via Lata (now the Via del Corso) runs through the piazza's eastern end, from south to north. The piazza has been a monumental open space since Antiquity; the temple of Marcus Aurelius stood on the site of Palazzo Wedekind.

Piazzale Flaminio

Piazzale Flaminio is a square in Rome just outside the Aurelian Walls, and the starting point of the Via Flaminia. The Porta del Popolo on its south side connects it to the Piazza del Popolo.The Flaminio-Piazza del Popolo metro station is located here. On its east side are the neoclassical propylaea to the Villa Borghese, designed by Luigi Canina.

Piazza della Libertà

Piazza della Libertà is a square in the rione Prati in Rome (Italy). The square lies at the end of Ponte Margherita (formerly the last bridge upstream in the town before Ponte Milvio) on the right bank of the Tiber; from it starts Via Cola di Rienzo, that crosses the rione Prati ending in Piazza Risorgimento. The square has a rectangular shape and consists of two green areas with flowerbeds; it shows some centuries-old trees and is surrounded by eclectic-style buildings. It dates back to the urbanization of the quarter, started in 1873 according to the so-called "Viviani Town-Plan". The monuments of the square include a 20th century sacred aedicula portraying the Virgin with the Child,  a 19th century monument to the playwright Pietro Cossa and Casa De' Salvi, an apartment house built in 1930 by architect Pietro Aschieri.

Piazza di San Macuto

Piazza di San Macuto is a piazza in the Pigna rione of Rome. It contains the church of San Macuto, near which the obelisco Macuteo was rediscovered around 1373. This is a small obelisk, only 6.34 m high (14.52 m including its base). It was originally one of a pair at Ramesses II's Temple of Ra in Heliopolis, the other being the now much shorter Obelisco Matteiano. It was moved from there to the Temple of Isis near Santa Maria sopra Minerva in antiquity, in what is now Piazza della Minerva and after its 14th century rediscovery was re-erected east of Santa Maria in Aracoeli on the Capitoline then in the Piazza della Rotonda in 1711.

Piazza della Minerva

Piazza della Minerva is a piazza in Rome, Italy, near the Pantheon. Its name derives from the existence of a temple built on the site by Pompey dedicated to Minerva Calcidica, whose statue is now in the Vatican Museums. At the center of the piazza, backing onto the Inquisition convent, is the 1667 Elephant and Obelisk by Bernini. This obelisk was excavated in the cloister and came from the Iseum. The elephant was known as "il pulcin della Minerva", or "porcino", from the Roman people's story that - uninspired by elephants - Bernini in fact sculpted a pig. To the right of the church stands the 16th century Palazzo Fonseca, since 1832 the site of one of the historic hotels of Rome, known as the Minerva, whose guests have included Stendhal and José de San Martín, remembered in plaques on the facade. Opposite the church is the Palazzo dell'accademia ecclesiastica (the former Accademia dei nobili ecclesiastici), 14th century in origin but completely rebuilt in 1878.

Piazza di Monte Citorio

Piazza di Monte Citorio or Piazza Montecitorio is a piazza in Rome. It is named after the Monte Citorio, one of the minor hills of Rome. The piazza contains the Obelisk of Montecitorio and the Palazzo Montecitorio.

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis" ("competition arena"). It is believed that over time the name changed to in avone to navone and eventually to navona. . It features important sculptural and architectural creations: in the center stands the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, topped by the Obelisk of Domitian, brought here in pieces from the Circus of Maxentius; the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Carlo Rainaldi and others; and the Pamphili palace, also by Girolamo Rainaldi, that accommodates the long gallery designed by Borromini and frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.

Piazza della Rotonda

The Piazza della Rotonda is a piazza (city square) in Rome, Italy, on the south side of which is located the Pantheon. The square gets its name from the Pantheon's informal title as the church of Santa Maria Rotonda.

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars (populus in Latin, pioppo in Italian) after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name. The piazza lies inside the northern gate in the Aurelian Walls, once the Porta Flaminia of ancient Rome, and now called the Porta del Popolo. This was the starting point of the Via Flaminia, the road to Ariminum (modern-day Rimini) and the most important route to the north. At the same time, before the age of railroads, it was the traveller's first view of Rome upon arrival. For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions, the last of which took place in 1826.

Piazza della Repubblica

Piazza della Repubblica is a semi-circular piazza in Rome, at the summit of the Viminal Hill, next to the Termini station. On it is to be found Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. It is served by the Repubblica - Teatro dell'Opera Metro station. From the square starts one of the main streets of Rome, Via Nazionale.

Piazza Scanderbeg

Piazza Scanderbeg is a square in Rome, Italy located on the junction of Vicolo Scanderbeg and Via della Panetteria. It is named after the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, who once lived in Palazzo Skanderbeg located on the square. Palazzo Skanderbeg is the site of the Italy's National Museum of Pasta.

Piazza di Spagna

Piazza di Spagna, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares of Rome (Italy). It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, seat of the Embassy of Spain among the Holy See.

St Peter's Square

St. Peter's Square is a massive plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, the papal enclave surrounded by Rome, directly west of the neighbourhood or rione of Borgo. At the center of the square is a four-thousand-year-old Egyptian obelisk, erected at the current site in 1568. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the square almost 100 years later, including the massive Tuscan colonnades, four columns deep, which embrace visitors in "the maternal arms of Mother Church." A granite fountain constructed by Bernini in 1675 matches another fountain designed by Carlo Maderno dating to 1613.

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Piazza Vittorio, is a piazza in Rome, in the Esquilino rione. It is served by the Vittorio Emanuele Metro station. Surrounded by palazzi with large porticoes in the 19th century style, the piazza was built by Gaetano Koch shortly after the unification of Italy. Umbertine in style, it is the largest piazza in Rome (316 x 174 metres). In the centre of the piazza is a garden with the remains of a fountain built by Alexander Severus, and the so-called "Porta Magica" (Magic Gate) or "Porta Alchemica" (Alchemist's Door), the entrance to Villa Palombara, residence of the alchemist Massimiliano II Palombara.

Piazza Venezia

Piazza Venezia is the central hub of Rome, Italy, in which many thoroughfares intersect, like Via dei Fori Imperiali and Via del Corso. It takes its name from Venice ("Venezia" in Italian), after the Venetian Cardinal, Pietro Barbo (later Pope Paul II) who had built Palazzo Venezia, a palace set next to the nearby church of Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice. Palazzo Venezia was the former embassy of the city of the Republic of Venice to Rome.

It is almost impossible, but largely unthinkable to not stroll through at least on piazza on a vacation in Rome! Visit at least one of these fabulous piazze on your next trip to Rome. Start planning your Italy vacation with Celtic Tours World Vacations