20 Best Squares In Rome To Check Out

When visiting Rome, I can assure you will be seeing more squares and churches than in any other place. That’s because the Romans used to love a good celebration back in the day, and the only way to do so was to have enough space around for people to gather in. These 20 best squares in Rome you must check out are just a little part of what you’ll be able to actually see, but it’s to get you excited for your next trip – if you have planned it already!

Because Rome, la città eterna, is all you need to see at least once in your life. The history, the architecture, pasta alla carbonara: everything is just as perfect as the previous one. I mean, you know I have a thing for pasta anyway, so it was just apt to mention my favourite ever dish when talking about Rome.

So back to the best squares in Rome now, I picked 20 of the most interesting ones whether that’s for the actual square or what the square itself is home to. I have not gone the extra mile and put them all in order of where they can be found, I am afraid, but nothing a quick search on Google Maps can’t help you do – just trying to keep you on your toes, always. What I do to help you locate all 20 of the best squares in Rome is add for you an easy Google Map below. You’re welcome! If you are going somewhere else in Italy, you can find even more squares to visit.

Here are some of the 20 best squares in Rome you need to check out

1. Piazza Navona

As iconic as it gets, Piazza Navona is possibly one of the most famous squares in town. It was built by the Pamphili family, by appointment of Pope Innocent X and it sits where the site of the Stadium of Domitian was initially built in the 1st Century AD. This is where ancient Romans went to watch the agones (games!) and as a result, it was also known as Circus Agonalis – the competition arena.

This is also where one of the biggest markets in Rome takes place, which you generally don’t want to miss out on – great bargains, always! But even more importantly, it features three different fountains, a Roman obelisk, a few churches, a palace and so much art scattered among all of these.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini, topped by the Obelisk of Domitian. Then you have the Fontana Del Moro by Giacomo Della Porta and the Fountain of Neptune also by Giacomo Della Porta. You will also be able to admire the church of Sant’Agnese in Agone and Palazzo Pamphili.

2. Piazza Di Santa Maria In Trastevere

A small square, but extremely important given it’s the home to the oldest fountain in Rome, dating back to the 8th century. It was the work of Bramante, with additions from Bernini and Fontana.

It’s also the home of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, also considered one of the oldest in Rome, and it was built in the same place where a fountain was at the time of Emperor Augustus.

3. Piazza Di Pietra

Tiny but mighty, a bit like everything else in the eternal city. It gets its name from the remains of the ancient Hadrianeum, a large temple dedicated to the emperor Hadrian by his son and successor Antonio Pio. Later on in the 1800s, additions were made to the square and buildings like Palazzo Della Borsa and the Chamber of Commerce, both by Virginio Vespignani.

Make sure you also check out the model of the temple at number 36 of the square, before you head back to the square for the Luci Su Adriano, a play of lights, sounds and images which illuminate the colonnade of the Temple of Hadrian at night for 12 minutes. A play put in place by 6 different synchronised projectors to reconstruct the birth, destruction, dispossession and reuse of the temple itself.

4. Piazza Della Bocca Della Verità

One of the squares in Rome considered to be also one of the most beautiful, it owes its name to the Bocca della Verità, a manhole cover in the shape of a mask located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. You might know about the tradition, but if not, welcome to a little fun anecdote!

Anyone who was not to tell the truth when inserting their hand in the hole would be served by their hand being mutilated with a clean cut. A little gory, yes. Very traditional of Romans, yes. But back to the square itself, as it’s home to some beautiful buildings and monuments of great artistic and historical value.

The Temple of Hercules and the Temple of Portunus are here, as well as the Fontana Dei Tritoni, commissioned by Pope Clement XI. This is where death sentences were carried out until 1868, another gory detail for such a beautiful square!

5. Piazza Del Popolo

I love squares in Rome, having been there a few times myself, and this one is such a beautiful one. Piazza del Popolo, literally translatable as people’s square, lies inside the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls. It used to be the starting point of the Via Flaminia, the most important route to the north of Italy.

Just like the previous one, Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions up until 1826. But the final design you are able to admire today, designed in neoclassical style, is as recent as the 1800s and was created by the hand of Giuseppe Valadier. It’s now home to the Egyptian Obelisk of Sety I from Heliopolis, brought to Rome in 10 BC by order of Augustus.

6. Piazza Della Rotonda

Out of all the squares in Rome, Piazza Della Rotonda sounds as one of the aptest when it comes to its name. On the south side of this square, you will be able to admire the Pantheon itself.

The name of this square, you guessed it, comes from the Pantheon’s shape and it’s also home to an obelisk in the centre of the square. It used to be notable for its market of bird sellers and, still to this day, for the Fontana del Pantheon, which was constructed in 1575 by Giacomo Della Porta. The obelisk, though, is an addition of 1711 and was done so by the order of Pope Clement XI.

7. Piazza Campo De’ Fiori

This one, possibly one of the most iconic squares in Rome, sits between Piazza Navona and Piazza Farnese. It’s also where the most picturesque and characteristic market in the city takes place, representing the typical scenario of Old Rome.

It also happens to be the only monumental square in Rome and its Historic Center not to host a church or a basilica, even though it was built by order of Pope Calisto III.

But this is the place where you want to be if you are looking for that cheerful and lively atmosphere which is very common of Romans. A taste of the nightlife of Rome made of bars, restaurants and plenty of outdoor seating.

8. Piazza Del Campidoglio

This square was the first one to be built following Michelangelo’s criteria of a uniform design and it stands on Capitoline Hill, where a very ancient village was located and where plenty or Roman temples were built.

It was modified in 1536 by order of Pope Paul III, on the occasion of the visit to the city of Spanish Emperor Charles V. It’s now the site of Capitoline Museums, the world’s first public museum opened in 1734 and surrounded by Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Senatorio.

9. Piazza San Pietro

Saint Peter’s Square it’s the heart of world Christianity. The characteristic elliptical shape is given by the colonnade was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII Chigi to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and the 284 columns are arranged radially in four rows. The play with optical illusions here let Bernini obtain a scenic result: if you cross the square, you can see the columns come together and move apart, with a feeling of movement and alternation between full and empty.

Of course, the St Peter’s Basilica here is the centre of attention, and it includes the dome designed by Michelangelo, the masterpieces within its walls by Bernini, Borromini and Canova to name a few, the Vatican Grottos and many more. The Vatican Museums are also extremely worth it, including the gardens, which is house to so many pieces including Greek and Roman sculptures, Egyptian antiquities, frescoes and precious works by artists such as Giotto, Titian and Caravaggio to name some more.

The Vatican Obelisk is also part of this square, placed in the centre of it by Sixtus V, one of the many brought to Rome from Egypt during the time of Caligula. Of course, there is so much just in this square, you’ll have to see them all for yourself.

10. Piazza Di Spagna

Another emblematic one, this among the squares in Rome is probably the most famous. It’s definitely a very attractive area with the Spanish Steps, the Church of SS. Trinità Dei Monti and the high-fashion shops are just at the bottom of the steps. You’re also at the bottom of something quite exciting for locals and tourists alike, the Pincio Hill, a cultural gem – and even an Instagram location you don’t want to miss out on!

Let’s not forget that the buildings around this square were home to John Keats and Percy Shelley – yes, those ones! – and the Barcaccia, the fountain by Pietro Bernini. This one has the shape of a boat, immersed in an oval pool, and represents the boat used on the Tiber River during the floods of the Tiber, which dragged the boats up to the foot of the Trinità de’ Monti.

11. Piazza Venezia

This one is located between Via Del Corso (a great shopping route!) and Via Dei Fori Imperiali. Of the piazzas in Rome, this might be the most trafficked I have ever experienced! This Rome piazza is home to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Altare Della Patria. This monument was started in 1885 and it represents an ideal ascending path that, through stairways and terraces, rises up to the collonaded portico and the bronze chariots, allegories of Unity of the homeland and freedom.

There is also Palazzo Venezia, the Basilica of San Marco and the Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, but also Palazzo Bonaparte, where Napoleon’s mother Letizia lived until her death.

12. Piazza Fontana Di Trevi

Another square, another fountain. And what an icon of a fountain we have here! All the piazzas in Rome will never come as close as this one when it comes to being famous. It appeared in movies like Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita, as well as more recent ones like The Lizzie McGuire Movie – I know! A piece of history ha!

The fountain itself happens to be located at the junction of three roads, tre vie, and it marks the terminal point of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct, one of the many which supplied water to ancient Rome. This one is really not a square per se, but worth the addition to this list of Roman squares nonetheless.

Fontana di Trevi was commissioned in 1629 by Pope Urban VIII to Bernini, but the project was abandoned once the pope died. The final project includes influences from the initial Bernini one and gets the fountain completed in 1762.

What is very famous about this fountain as well is the coin throwing. You will throw a coin in the fountain using your right hand over your left shoulder for good luck in life. Something like €3000 is thrown everyday in the fountain, and they get used to subsidize a charity in Rome for the needy.

13. Piazza Capo Di Ferro

This one is nothing to shout about as a square itself, but what is definitely worth mentioning about this square is Palazzo Spada and Borromini’s perspective gallery. While the gallery itself it’s packed with plenty of artists you really don’t want to miss out on – think Artemisia Gentileschi, a personal favourite, but also Tiziano, Parmigianino and Caravaggio – the perspective gallery is what you need to get to.

Located in the Secret Garden, the illusionistic Colonnade was created in 1653 for Cardinal Bernardino Spada. It stands out as a play on perspective, featuring Baroque art. The gallery itself, long 9 metres, stretches out even further thanks to the illusion given by a startling perspective.

14. Piazza Di San Giovanni In Laterano

This one is among the most important squares in Rome, and it’s packed with the history of the Church, including buildings like the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Baptistery, the Holy Stairs and the Sancta Sanctorum, but also the Obelisk and the Lateran Place.

The basilica itself is considered the ”mother of all churches in the world” and represents the ideal trait d’union between the pagan and Christian eras.

The Lateran Palace served as the residence of popes for about a millennium, and their residence was moved to the Vatican just in 1377. Last, but not least, the Obelisk: of Egyptian origin, it’s made of red granite, 32.18 metres high and weighs 455 tons. It was the last of the Capitoline obelisks brought to Rome and was originally built by Tutmosis III, pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.

15. Piazza Barberini

This is the square you want to have at the top of your list when visiting squares in Rome. It was built on the site of the ancient Circus of Flora, where floral games used to take place in May to celebrate springtime. This beautiful square owes its name to the Palazzo Barberini, and is home to the Fontana Del Tritone by Bernini, by appointment of Pope Urban VIII. The enormous shell where the Triton stands, the base of four dolphins and the papal coats of arms with bees are all elements you cannot miss out on.

16. Piazza Farnese

Yet another of the squares in Rome with a very prominent fountain within it. This Roman piazza is located just behind Campo de’ Fiori and is dominated by two large fountains. It is also home to the Palazzo Farnese, with works from artists like Michelangelo among the many.

17. Piazza Colonna

This is one of the squares in Rome you’re bound to recognise from TV, as it’s home to Palazzo Chigi, where the Cabinet Office resides since 1961. But like all the other squares in Rome, this one is packed with history and art.

Worth remembering all the buildings and churches like San Bartolomeo Ai Bergamaschi, Ospedale Dei Pazzi, Palazzo Wedekind and Galleria Alberto Sordi.

18. Piazza Testaccio

One of the squares in Rome loved by both Romans and tourists alike, this square is what you’d call the true Roman-ness when it comes to lifestyle and everything else. In the heart of Testaccio, it takes its name from Mons Testaceus, an artificial hillock made up of broken pieces of amphorae dumped in the nearby river port, the Emporium.

It was home to one of the historic local markets, which was moved after the restyling of 2015. A fountain (you guessed it!) was placed in the middle of this Roman square and it’s called the Fountain of the Amphoras.

19. Piazza Della Minerva

This is one of those squares in Rome you’d probably miss, but it’s oh-so-worthy. Located behind the Pantheon, this Roman square is overlooked by the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, and it’s a rare example of Gothic art in Rome. It is home to some splendid works by Lippi, Michelangelo and Romano to name a few.

You can also admire the Palazzina Della Minerva, built in the second half of the 16th century and it now houses the Senate Library, which keeps about 70000 volumes and even more periodicals and both Italian and foreign newspapers.

Of course, this is one of those squares in Rome with no fountain, but an obelisk is homed here instead. This Egyptian obelisk in red granite from the 6th century BC, it’s tiny compared to any other scattered around the city and measures about five and a half meters high only.

20. Piazza Della Repubblica

And last, but most definitely not least in this list of squares in Rome, you need to check out this one. Formerly knowns as Piazza Esedra, from the Roman Baths of Diocletian, it has changed since the re-styling of the 19th century by the hands of Gaetano Koch.

It’s home to the Basilica of Santa Maria Degli Angeli e Dei Martiri, by Michelangelo himself. On the floors of this church, you will be able to admire the Sundial Line. And in the centre of this square, you will find the Fountain of the Naiads.

So much of this info has been found on turismoroma.it and Wikipedia.com.

So that’s the end for the 20 best squares in Rome you must check out!

I mean, when in Rome… You have to visit these 20 best squares in Rome and tell us what you think of them! But in the meantime, why not check out our latest recipes all the way from Sicily, Biancomangiare and pistachio liqueur?

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