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Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna)

The Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Spagna) is a 135 step stairway running between Piazza di Spagna at the base and the church Trinita' dei Monti at the top. Climb to the top and from Trinita' dei Monti you'll see a beautiful panoramic view of the Piazza and Via Condotti branching away.

The Spanish Steps area is traditionally considered the "English quarters" where, during the 19th and 20th centuries, English and American artists and writers came to dwell. Tobias Smollett, George Eliot, Goethe (okay, he's not English and he came in the late 18th C), Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, the Brownings, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde and Joyce, all lived here. To one side of the Steps is the house where English Poet John Keats lived for one year and died in 1821 from tuberculosis. It is now the Keats-Shelley museum and contains various memorabilia and a library of late British Romantic poets. Off Piazza di Spagna on Via Condotti is the Antica Cafe Greco which started business in 1760 and remains one of Rome's oldest and most venerated cafes. Browsing the walls you can see inscriptions by Wagner, Thackery, Stendhal and Listz.

All around Piazza di Spagna and particularly on Via Condotti is a haven for high-end shoppers. Here you'll find Cartier, Valentino, Armani, Bulgari and Gucci, just to name a few. For mid-end fashion boutiques, Via del Corso is the street to go. This long street is just 4-5 blocks west of Piazza di Spagna, and runs all the way from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza Venezia.

Around 7 blocks south of Piazza di Spagna is Piazza di Trevi, the site of the spectacular Trevi Fountain. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762. The visual impact is notable, as the gushing fountain takes up almost half the square it occupies, and is set almost entirely against the side of Palazzo Poli, almost in the manner of a theater stage. The central figure depicts Neptune riding a winged chariot driven by sea horses. The fountain's water is supplied by the Vergine acqueduct (built by Agrippa in 19 BC) from a spring 19 kms away from Rome, which is the same source that provides water for the major fountains in Rome's historic center.