Rome neighborhoods: Piazza Navona area - things to see and do near Piazza Navona in Rome

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is one of Rome's liveliest and most visited squares, featuring three magnificent fountains, the baroque church of Sant'Agnese in Agone and Palazzo Pamphilj, now home to the Brazilian embassy. Piazza Navona was built on the former Domitian's stadium, which was constructed in 86 AD for the purpose of holding festivals and sporting events, and was known as the 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena).

Of the three fountains, the central and largest fountain is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (fountain of the four rivers), constructed between 1647 and 1651. Pope Innocent X commissioned its design first to Borromini, but then it was handed to Bernini. The fountain depicts four figures, each representing a major river from a different continent - the Danube, the Ganges, the Nile and the Rio della Plata.

Piazza Navona is off limits to traffic and regularly filled with street performers so it's a good spot for children to relax with a gelato after a long day of sightseeing. While the restaurants on the piazza do a roaring tourist trade, they are ridiculously over-priced. Any of the streets running off the piazza have better and more reasonably-priced restaurants.

A nice 6-7 minute stroll from Piazza Navona across Corso del Rinascimento will get you to Piazza della Rotonda, dominated on one side by the Pantheon. It is believed that this spiritual building (in Greek, pantheon refers to "all gods") was first built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC but then later completed by Hadrian between 118 and 128, giving to it a style reminiscent of ancient Greek temples. The interior of the Pantheon is cylindrical in shape and above it there is a hemispherical dome. It is illuminated by natural light, the only source of which comes from the oculus at the center of the dome and through the bronze doors. With the dominance of Christianity in Rome, the Pantheon was converted into a church in 609. The resilience of this nearly 2000-year-old monumental structure, surviving from pagan to medieval and then to modern times is underlined, by way of an interesting visual contrast, by the McDonald's restaurant that is right opposite it.