Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo opens at the northern end of Via del Corso, in the Campo Marzio district, and covers about 16,000 square meters of pedestrian zone. On major occasions the authorized capacity reaches 65,000 people. You can enter on foot from any side and it costs nothing, because the square is a public space open day and night. The most convenient stop is Flaminio-Piazza del Popolo on Line A of the metro, opened on February 16, 1980 and connected directly to the Piazzale Flaminio station of the Roma Nord railway. From the turnstile to the obelisk you walk less than 300 meters, passing through the Porta del Popolo. Trams 2 and 19 and several surface lines also run through Piazzale Flaminio. You can't reach the area by car. It is pedestrian and falls within the limited traffic zone of the Historic Center, so it's better to leave the car outside and take the metro. The Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, the monument that alone justifies the trip, is at Piazza del Popolo 12. The basilica's official website lists opening hours of Monday to Friday 10:30 to 12:30 and 16:00 to 18:30, Saturday 10:30 to 18:30, and Sunday and holidays 16:30 to 18:30. Admission is free and no reservation is needed. Roman church hours change with services, though, so they should be rechecked on the basilica's website before you show up. Otherwise: no ticket, no turnstile, no weekly closing day.

Anyone who wants to see the area as a whole will find a good starting point on the page for the Pincio, the terrace that closes the square to the east, and in the calendar of events held here every year.

What you see when you stop in the center of Piazza del Popolo

The center is the right place to understand how the square works. At the foot of the obelisk, with your back to the Porta del Popolo, you have the Tridente in front of you: three straight streets that start from the same point and open the city in a fan shape toward the south. In the center is Via del Corso, on the left Via del Babuino, which points to Piazza di Spagna, and on the right Via di Ripetta, which runs down toward the river. The two so-called twin churches act as a hinge between the three openings and create the illusion of a symmetry that, when measured, does not exist. Behind you is the city gate. On the left is the long flank of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo with its bell tower. On the right is the curved wall of the exedra facing the Tiber. To the east is the slope of the Pincio with the panoramic terrace.

The square reads as a sequence of overlapping interventions, not as a unified design: an Egyptian obelisk from the 13th century BC, a 16th-century gate, a medieval basilica rebuilt in the 15th century and then in the 17th century, two Baroque churches, a neoclassical elliptical layout, and a 19th-century connection to the hill. Five eras within 300 meters in diameter. Anyone who arrives expecting to find a Baroque square is taken aback: the shell that gives Piazza del Popolo its recognizable shape is neoclassical, and it is less than 200 years old.

The elliptical shape and the two exedras

Until the early 19th century the square was a modest trapezoid widening toward the Tridente, enclosed by the walls and by mismatched buildings. The current layout, with the central ellipse and the two large curved exedrae facing each other, belongs to the work of Giuseppe Valadier and later completions. The exedrae are not blank walls: they hold statues, grotesque masks, vases and the two monumental fountains, and they act as a buffer between the level of the square and the two worlds that press in on it, the slope of the hill on one side and the descent toward the river on the other. It is an engineering solution disguised as stage design, and it is the reason Piazza del Popolo still works today as a container for crowds.

The Flaminio Obelisk, the Oldest Piece in Piazza del Popolo

At the center stands the Flaminio Obelisk, Egyptian granite, the oldest monument in the square by nearly two millennia. The shaft measures 25.90 meters. With the base and the cross that crowns it, the monument reaches 36.50 meters. It was cut and inscribed for the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, and the hieroglyphs carry the names of the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty: the most up-to-date source records Seti I and his son Ramesses II, while the traditional reading that circulates in guidebooks pairs Ramesses II with Merenptah. Anyone looking closely at the shaft will see that the faces are not carved in the same way: the hieroglyphic columns were completed in different phases.

In 10 BC Octavian Augustus had it loaded onto a ship and brought to Rome as a trophy of the conquest of Egypt, and placed it on the spina of the Circus Maximus, where it spent centuries circling beneath the chariots. Then the circus silted up, the obelisk fell, and its memory was lost. It was rediscovered in 1587 broken into three pieces. Pope Sixtus V, who was redrawing the map of Rome by placing obelisks like road signs for pilgrims, ordered its recovery: Domenico Fontana reassembled it and raised it here in 1589. The cross at the top is not an ornament: it is the signature of the Christianization of the pagan monument, the same operation Fontana had carried out three years earlier in front of St. Peter's.

The Four Lions at the Base of the Flaminio Obelisk

The marble lions crouching at the four corners of the base, with water jets spilling from their jaws into a basin on a short flight of steps, are neither Egyptian nor 17th-century: Valadier put them there in 1823, in an Egyptianizing style, to tie the base to the origin of the shaft. Before them, from 1573, a fountain by Giacomo Della Porta stood at the center of the square, one of 18 commissioned by Gregory XIII after the restoration of the Virgin Aqueduct. Domenico Fontana moved it toward the entrance of Via del Corso to make room for the obelisk, and Valadier removed it definitively from this position in the early 19th century. The advice, and it is not a detail just for scholars: sitting on the steps of the lions at sunset is the smartest thing you can do in this square, because it is the only spot from which you can take in, at a single glance, the gate, the two churches and the terrace.

The Porta del Popolo, the Northern Gate of Rome

The northern side of the square is closed by the Porta del Popolo, which in the Aurelian Walls was called Porta Flaminia because the consular Via Flaminia started there. For 15 centuries anyone arriving in Rome from the north, pilgrim, merchant, ambassador or milord on the Grand Tour, entered the city through exactly this opening: the first image of Rome was the square we are describing. Knowing this, it's easy to see why the popes invested so much money in it.

The Outer Facade: Nanni di Baccio Bigio for Pius IV

The side facing outward was rebuilt between 1562 and 1565 at the wish of Pope Pius IV. The commission passed from Michelangelo, who delegated the execution to Nanni di Baccio Bigio: the layout references the Arch of Titus, and the four columns set into the facade come from the old St. Peter's Basilica, reused as was common at the time without much philological scruple. The statues of saints Peter and Paul placed between the pairs of columns are by Francesco Mochi and arrived in 1638, therefore three quarters of a century after the architecture.

The Inner Facade by Bernini and Queen Christina of Sweden

The side facing Piazza del Popolo is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1655, and it has a precise reason. Pope Alexander VII was awaiting the arrival in the city of Christina of Sweden, the queen who had abdicated and converted to Catholicism: an enormous propaganda coup for the Counter-Reformation Church. Bernini redesigned the interior elevation and the cornice, and along the attic runs the inscription FELICI FAVSTOQVE INGRESSVI ANNO DOM MDCLV, for a happy and auspicious entrance. The queen passed under that arch on December 23, 1655. At the top is the coat of arms of the Chigi, the pope's family: the six-peaked mountain surmounted by the eight-rayed star, a blazon that appears three times in this square, because it also returns inside the basilica.

The Demolished Towers and the Two Side Archways

Until 1878 the gate had only one opening, the large central arch, with two fortification towers on either side. Between 1878 and 1879 the towers were demolished and the two smaller side passages were opened, completed by 1887. It was a traffic decision, taken by Rome as the capital city, so that carriages and trams could pass where before only one line at a time could. Overall, the gate we see is a layered structure: an ancient core, a sixteenth-century skin on the outside, a Baroque skin on the inside, and nineteenth-century additions on the sides.

Santa Maria del Popolo, the basilica of Piazza del Popolo

To the left of the gate, built against the walls, stands the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo. From the outside it is the most understated building in the square, and you walk past it absentmindedly. Inside it holds two Caravaggios, a chapel designed by Raphael, sculptures by Bernini, frescoes by Pinturicchio, tombs by Andrea Sansovino and Andrea Bregno, a choir by Bramante, and sixteenth-century French stained glass. No museum in Rome offers so much for free admission. If I had to point out only one interior to see in this part of the city, I wouldn't hesitate.

From Pasquale II's chapel to the Renaissance basilica

Tradition traces the origin back to 1099, when Pope Pasquale II had a chapel built after removing the tomb that popular memory attributed to Nero. The construction was funded by a more or less voluntary subscription of the Roman people, and this is the most widely accepted explanation of the name. In 1227 Gregory IX expanded the building and had the Marian image that is still venerated here today moved to it from the Chapel of the Santissimo Salvatore in the Lateran. Since 1250 the church has been run by the Augustinians, first those of Tuscia and from 1472 those of the Lombard Congregation: from that period remains the late Gothic bell tower in Lombard style, clad in terracotta, with a conical spire and pinnacles at the corners.

The decisive rebuilding took place under Sixtus IV between 1472 and 1477, and the documented architect is Giovannino de' Dolci: the attribution to Baccio Pontelli, repeated by Vasari onward and still in circulation today, should be considered outdated. Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the basilica fills up with family chapels: this is when the great families of the Curia buy sacred space the way people today buy a representative property. Between 1655 and 1660 Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to remodel the interior, and that worksite gives us the Baroque imprint visible now, including the organ supported by angels. The basilica underwent a general restoration completed in November 2024.

The Cerasi Chapel and the two Caravaggios

The chapel at the end of the left nave, to the left of the high altar, was purchased on June 8, 1600 by Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi, treasurer of the Apostolic Camera, who entrusted its expansion to Carlo Maderno. In September of that same year Cerasi commissioned Caravaggio for the two side paintings: the Crucifixion of Saint Peter and the Conversion of Saint Paul. There is a twist to this story that is worth knowing before you go in. Caravaggio delivered two first versions painted on cypress panels, and those panels are not the paintings you see in the chapel today, because the current ones are on canvas. The first versions left the church and took a different path. The patron died in May 1601 and did not see the finished work.

In front of the original, it is worth looking at three things. First: the light enters from outside the frame and does not illuminate the scene, it selects it, leaving in darkness everything that does not serve the story. Second: in the Conversion the protagonist is on the ground and occupies the lower part of the canvas, while the space is taken up by the horse, a choice that seemed irreverent to his contemporaries. Third: in the Crucifixion the cross is being hoisted upside down by three workmen whose faces are not visible. They are backs, dirty feet, and physical effort. At the center of the chapel, on the altar, is the altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci: the comparison between Carracci's Bolognese classicism and Caravaggio's naturalism, set up by the patron in the same room, is the most eloquent document of the artistic battle of 1600. Anyone who has seen the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi already has half the argument in their pocket: here they find the other half.

The Chigi Chapel, Raphael as Architect

On the left nave, the second chapel as you enter, is the Chigi Chapel, and it is not a work of art inside a church: it is a small independent building designed by Raphael Sanzio for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi in the years 1513-1514. Raphael designed the centrally planned architecture and the cartoons for the dome mosaics, executed by the Venetian Luigi de Pace in 1516: at the center, God the Creator, and around it the allegories of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets then known, that is, an astrological sky inside a Christian chapel, which for a Renaissance banker was perfectly consistent.

The two pyramid tombs of the Chigi occupy the side walls: the pyramid as a sign of eternity, an idea that had a monumental precedent in Rome, within sight. Of the four statues in the niches, two are by Lorenzetto after a design by Raphael, Jonah coming out of the whale and Elijah. The other two are by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Habakkuk with the angel and Daniel with the lion, and this is the key point: the chapel remained unfinished for over a century and was completed by Bernini between 1652 and 1656 for Cardinal Fabio Chigi, a descendant of Agostino, who would soon become Pope Alexander VII. The two Bernini statues look at each other diagonally across the space: the angel grabs Habakkuk by the hair and points to Daniel, and the two marbles speak to each other across the room. In the floor, the mosaic with the winged skeleton and the motto on Fabio Chigi's tomb closes the program. I'll add a note of realism: this chapel has become a destination for literary pilgrims after a widely read novel, and on weekends you find people looking for symbols that don't exist. The real work is more interesting than the legend.

The Other Chapels of Santa Maria del Popolo

The first chapel on the right as you enter, called the Nativity or Della Rovere, holds the cycle by Pinturicchio. The Umbrian painter worked in this basilica in several stages, and his workshop is also responsible for the frescoes of the apse vault, executed between 1508 and 1510. The Cybo Chapel, in the right aisle, was rebuilt in the seventeenth century on a Greek cross plan and is the most lavish for polychrome marbles. The Basso della Rovere Chapel holds a fifteenth-century ceramic floor from Deruta, a rare piece that almost no one looks at because it's underfoot. The Costa Chapel, commissioned by the Portuguese, holds fifteenth-century sculptures from the Lombard area. The Mellini Chapel closes the series on the right side.

Bramante's Choir, the Tombs and the Stained Glass

Behind the high altar opens the barrel-vaulted choir, designed by Donato Bramante for Julius II. It's a space that should be viewed from the back of the nave, because it's built to lengthen the church in perspective. On the choir walls are the two funerary monuments of Cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Girolamo Basso della Rovere, sculpted by Andrea Sansovino in the early sixteenth century. They are among the most important Renaissance tombs in Rome, with the deceased stretched out as if sleeping, not as if dead. Andrea Bregno left other sculptures here, including the marble altar of the sacristy. The choir's stained-glass windows, from 1509, are by Guillaume de Marcillat, a French master glassmaker. They depict episodes from the life of Mary and Christ and are among the very few sixteenth-century stained-glass windows surviving in Rome, a city that has always preferred the wall to colored light.

Opening Hours and Visiting Rules for the Basilica

Admission is free. The basilica's website lists opening hours Monday to Friday from 10.30 to 12.30 and from 16.00 to 18.30, on Saturday with continuous hours from 10.30 to 18.30, and on Sunday and holidays from 16.30 to 18.30. The basilica remains a place of worship: you enter with shoulders and knees covered, keep your voice low, and don't visit during services. The side chapels are closed off by gates and should be viewed from outside. For the two Caravaggios there is the usual coin-operated device for temporary lighting, and without the light on, the canvases are almost unreadable. Bring one-euro coins: it's the most mundane and most useful advice on the whole page.

The Twin Churches of Piazza del Popolo: Two Buildings That Aren't Twins

On the south side, on either side of the mouth of Via del Corso, stand Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. Everyone calls them the twin churches, and in photographs they look it: same porch with columns, same dome, same statues on the balustrade. They aren't. The eastern plot, toward Via del Babuino, was narrower than the western one, and to get two facades that look identical, the architects fudged the floor plans. It's the most elegant perspective trick of Baroque Rome, and anyone who knows it doesn't look at these two churches the same way anymore.

Santa Maria dei Miracoli, the Church with a Circular Plan

The church on the right as you face it from the obelisk, between Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta, has a circular plan. It was begun in 1675, 14 years after the papal order, finished in 1679, and consecrated and opened to the public two years later. Carlo Rainaldi signed the design of both the interior and the exterior. Carlo Fontana oversaw the execution of the interior, the presbytery and the high altar, and designed and built the octagonal dome covered in slate tiles. The columns of the portico come from Bernini's designs for the bell towers of St. Peter's, which were never completed: material meant for another work and recycled here. Along the outer balustrade stand 10 statues of saints, sculpted between 1676 and 1677 by Filippo Carcani and Ercole Ferrata. The Marian image that gives the church its name refers to an event of June 20, 1325, when a woman called on a Madonna painted on the walls to save her son who had fallen into the Tiber. The bell tower rises over Via del Corso, a mirror of the one on the neighboring church, and is attributed to Francesco Navone.

Santa Maria in Montesanto, the Church with an Elliptical Plan and the Artists' Mass

The church on the left, between Via del Corso and Via del Babuino, has an elliptical plan, and it is the geometric compensation for the narrower lot: from outside the dome looks the same as the other one, but the interior space is squashed. Work began in 1662, stopped at the death of Alexander VII in 1667, resumed in 1673 under the direction of Carlo Fontana with Bernini supervising, and the interior decoration was completed in 1679. The bell tower, by Francesco Navone, was finished in 1761. The name comes from the small church that the building replaced, which belonged to the Carmelite friars of the province of Monte Santo in Sicily.

Since 1953 the church has been home to the Artists' Mass, an initiative conceived in 1941 by Monsignor Ennio Francia. Since then this has been the church of Roman painters, sculptors, actors and musicians, and the funerals of many names of Italian cinema have passed through here. If you arrive in Piazza del Popolo on a Sunday morning and find a small crowd in front of the left portico, know that it is not a tourist line.

The Trident That Starts from Piazza del Popolo

The three streets that branch off from the south side form the Trident, the urban layout that organized all of the northern Campo Marzio. In the center is Via del Corso, the ancient Via Lata, a straight stretch of about a kilometer and a half to Piazza Venezia, the street of the Barbary horse races during Carnival and today the most heavily walked commercial axis in the city. To the east is Via del Babuino, which connects Piazza del Popolo to Piazza di Spagna and takes its name from the fountain with the figure of a silenus that the Romans judged so ugly they called it a baboon. It is the street of antique dealers and galleries. To the west is Via di Ripetta, which runs down toward the vanished river port, passes next to the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis, and is the least touristy of the three, so the most pleasant to walk.

The Trident is no accident: it converges exactly on the gate where outsiders entered, and it served to sort them toward the three poles of the papal city, the Vatican, the hotel district and the area of the basilicas. Anyone looking at the square from above understands that Piazza del Popolo is a funnel designed to manage arrivals.

Giuseppe Valadier and Piazza del Popolo We See Today

Giuseppe Valadier, a Roman neoclassical architect, is responsible for the current form, and the story of his project is more troubled than the result lets on. As early as 1793 Valadier had presented a project that included two cavalry barracks on either side of the square. With the French occupation, the Napoleonic authorities imposed on him a program for a public garden and promenade that did not take into account the difference in height between the Pincio and the square below: it could not be built. A second project repeated the same flaw. The commission then passed to the architect Berthault. As soon as the French left Rome, Valadier took the work back in hand and brought it to completion.

The result is the central ellipse with the double exedra decorated with statues and fountains, stretching on one side toward the terrace of the Pincio and on the other toward the Tiber. The available source places the development of the project for the Pincio garden between 1810 and 1818, with the approval of the design of the square in June 1816. The tree-lined ramps for carriages that connect the square to the hill were finished in 1834. It's worth saying without beating around the bush: Valadier solved a problem of elevation, he did not decorate a square. Everything that looks like scenery is really the way to get a carriage from one level up to the next without brutal hairpin turns.

The Fountains of the Exedras: Neptune and the Goddess Roma

Shortly after the lions by the obelisk, Valadier built the two almost twin fountains at the centers of the curved walls that bound the ellipse. The structure is identical: a wide basin at street level at the foot of a wall as long as the basin's diameter, where water overflows from a semicircular shell-shaped bowl set against the wall, fed in turn by water pouring from the wall into a smaller bowl. At the top of the wall, at each end, a pair of dolphins with twisted tails.

The only difference lies in the central statuary group. In the western fountain, on the river side, a group of rocks supports the figure of Neptune flanked by two Tritons and as many dolphins. In the eastern one, on the hill side, the rocks hold the goddess Roma, with the seated personifications of the Tiber and the Aniene at her sides, and at the goddess's feet the Capitoline she-wolf suckling the twins. The reading is political: on one side the sea and maritime power, on the other the city and its two rivers. Someone walking by distracted sees two identical fountains, someone who stops for 30 seconds sees a statement about Rome's identity.

The Large Niche Fountain Below the Terrace

On the ramp connecting Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio, practically behind the goddess Roma, Valadier built a monumental fountain that is more imposing than it is successful. The structure has two superimposed architectures. In the upper half, three large niches framed by columns on tall pilasters, which seem to support the terrace balustrade, within the niches the water cascades from above. In the lower half, slightly more forward, a wall with three smaller niches aligned with the upper ones, each with a small collecting basin. In 1936 the large niche below the terrace hosted the opening of the exhibition of the renovated Virgin Aqueduct, the last significant structural intervention on the whole.

The Last 19th-Century Touches

After the breach at Porta Pia and the construction of the Ponte Margherita, between 1886 and 1891, a new access road to the square was created behind the exedra on the river side, with small side gardens, roads and steps. In parallel, as already mentioned, the gate lost its towers and gained its archways. Anyone who wants to gauge how recent the image we consider eternal is should consider this: much of what gets photographed in Piazza del Popolo is less than 200 years old, and the most photographed part of all, the Pincio terrace, is just over 200 years old.

The Pincio, the Terrace Overlooking Piazza del Popolo from Above

The hill that closes the square to the east rises 61 meters above sea level and takes its name from the Pincii, the family that occupied its northern part in the 4th century. The panoramic terrace was dedicated to Napoleon, and the avenue that runs along it, originally called Viale del Pincio, has borne the name of Gabriele d'Annunzio since 1945. There are three ways up: Valadier's carriage ramps starting from the eastern exedra, the staircase that cuts across them, or from above by entering through Villa Borghese, which is the easy route for those with knee problems. The height difference from the square to the balcony takes about 10 minutes of easy walking.

The Busts of Illustrious Men

Along the avenues of the Pincio you'll find hundreds of marble herms with busts of famous Italians. The idea was born during the Roman Republic of 1849, with an allocation of 10,000 lire for the sculptures. The project was inherited by the papal government: in 1851 Pope Pius IX had the busts placed, but he excluded figures hostile to the temporal power of the Church, which says a lot about how a national pantheon gets built. By the late 1960s, the men and women depicted numbered 228. Many heads have been beheaded, stolen or replaced over time: anyone who strolls through will notice herms without busts and noses redone. It's a secular cemetery of faces, and it's free.

The Casina Valadier

On the Pincio, in Piazza Bucarest, within the perimeter of Villa Borghese, stands the Casina Valadier, the hill's café: a cubic volume with an elegant exedra of Ionic columns, built by Valadier himself between 1816 and 1837 by reworking a 17th-century farmhouse, with neoclassical interiors frescoed in Pompeian style. It was an elegant meeting place from the Kingdom of Italy onward. It fell into decline in the 20th century until it became the park custodian's home, was sold and turned into a restaurant in 1920, was occupied by German soldiers during the war, was fashionable again after the war, and was closed to the public in 1990. It reopened on June 19, 2004 after restoration work. From 2024 it operates exclusively as a venue for events and receptions: anyone who goes up hoping for a coffee at a table should check first, because the formula has changed.

The Carabinieri Barracks in Piazza del Popolo

On the eastern side, built against the slope, the long, severe building that almost no one looks at houses the Regional Command Carabinieri of Lazio, in the barracks named after Giacomo Acqua. Its history sums up three centuries of Rome in a single building: it was born as an Augustinian convent, became the barracks of the papal gendarmes, and in 1870, with the end of the temporal power, became the first headquarters of the Royal Carabinieri of the Savoy. On the side of this building, to the left of Porta del Popolo, is set into the wall the plaque commemorating the two Carbonari executed in the square. It was placed in 1909 by the sculptor Lorenzo Cozza.

Nero, the Tomb and the Legends of Piazza del Popolo

On the slopes of the Pincio, near the square, tradition places the tomb of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, Nero's paternal family, and assigns to it the emperor's ashes. Nero died in 68 AD after being declared a public enemy by the Senate: he fled Rome and took his own life, according to the ancient account with the help of a freedman, because he didn't have the courage to carry out the act alone. His memory was subjected to damnatio memoriae, the systematic erasure of his name from inscriptions and monuments.

The origin of the square's name remains open. One etymological line derives Popolo from the Latin populus, meaning poplar, and tradition says that where the square opens today there grew a grove of poplars belonging to the imperial tomb. Another explanation, better documented, links the name to the public subscription that funded the chapel of Paschal II. This page mentions both because neither is proven, and anyone who tells the poplar story as established fact is oversimplifying.

Witches, Walnuts and the 1099 Exorcism

The medieval legend is rich, and it's worth telling it for what it is: a legend. A walnut tree is said to have grown over the emperor's tomb, marking its exact spot, and it was considered cursed. The grove was supposedly a gathering place for ghosts, witches and demons, with Nero himself among the apparitions. Popular memory also mixed in the night followers of the Fountain of Anna Perenna, the Roman sanctuary dedicated to the goddess of the year that has yielded curse tablets. In 1099 Pope Paschal II supposedly had a vision of the Virgin ordering him to cut down the tree, dig up the emperor's remains and burn them. Once this was done, the witches left, and on the site of the tomb rose the chapel that is at the origin of the basilica. The Madonna belonged to the people, and the square became Piazza del Popolo.

Who Was Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus reigned from 54 to 68 AD and went down in history as one of the most infamous rulers of the empire. Ancient historiography, from Tacitus to Suetonius, credits him with poisoning his stepbrother Britannicus, the son of Emperor Claudius, with killing his mother Agrippina, with divorcing and exiling his first wife, and with persecuting hostile senators. It has to be said honestly that those sources are biased, written by authors tied to the senatorial aristocracy that Nero had humiliated, and that modern historiography scales back several of their episodes. Suetonius writes that Nero sang to the accompaniment of his lyre on the night of the great fire of 64, and the popular suspicion that he had started the fire himself was redirected by the emperor onto Christians, against whom the first Roman persecution was unleashed. In that climate, Saint Peter and Saint Paul were killed. The same episode gave rise to the late antique identification of Nero with the Antichrist and to the reading of the number 666 as a figure derived from the Hebrew transcription of his name: an interpretation widespread among scholars, not an established fact.

A Curiosity About Piazza del Popolo

The curiosity I like best concerns the two twin churches, and it concerns a lie built in masonry. The 17th-century design was meant to close off the far end of the square with two buildings perceived as identical, placed on either side of Via del Corso. The problem was the ground: the eastern plot, squeezed between Via del Corso and Via del Babuino, was noticeably narrower than the western one between Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta. Building two churches that were truly identical was impossible. The solution was brilliant and shameless: two buildings were built with different floor plans but with facades and domes calibrated to look identical to anyone viewing them from the opposite side of the square. Santa Maria dei Miracoli has a circular plan, Santa Maria in Montesanto has an elliptical plan, and the dome of the second, stretched out, reads from the front as a circular dome identical to that of the first.

The result is that millions of photographs around the world document a symmetry that doesn't exist on the ground. Anyone can check this, for free and in two minutes: go into one church and then the other, look up, and compare the shape of the interior space. Those with a good eye notice right away. Those without one will have one after the comparison. I'll add the second part of the curiosity, less well known than the first: the columns of the pronaos of Santa Maria dei Miracoli come from Bernini's designs for the bell towers of St. Peter's, a worksite that ended badly and was never completed. Leftover material from a famous failure, reused to build the most successful illusion in Piazza del Popolo. In the history of Roman architecture there are few ironies this perfect.

Something Nobody Tells You About Piazza del Popolo

This square was Rome's public gallows for nearly three centuries, a fact that commercial guidebooks avoid because it spoils the atmosphere. Papal State executions were carried out in a few fixed locations, and Piazza del Popolo was the main one, together with Campo de' Fiori and the Velabro area. The executioner who left his name in Roman memory was Giovanni Battista Bugatti, known as Mastro Titta, born in Senigallia on March 6, 1779 and died in Rome on June 18, 1869. He took up the post at age 17, on March 22, 1796, and stayed in office for 68 years, reaching about 514 executions by 1864, an average of seven a year. He kept a personal register, and he kept it with accountant-like precision.

He lived in Borgo, on the other side of the Tiber from the execution sites, and to reach them he had to cross Ponte Sant'Angelo. This gave rise to the Roman saying Mastro Titta passa il ponte, meaning there's an execution today. A whole city could read its day from a man crossing a bridge.

The method that gives you chills is the mazzolatura, a method of execution by mallet reserved for some of the condemned: a stone base on which the executioner forced the condemned person to rest his head, and a mallet brought down on the skull. The practice had been abolished in Italy during the Napoleonic interlude and was reinstated precisely in the Papal States, Mastro Titta notes in his memoirs that he had struck many condemned men with the mallet. His red cloak is preserved in the Criminology Museum of Rome. Those who cross the pedestrian island today, between the café tables and the tour groups, walk on a surface that has witnessed those scenes for generations, and knowing this doesn't spoil the visit: it makes it more mature.

My Advice for Visiting Piazza del Popolo

My advice is to reverse the order in which almost everyone approaches Piazza del Popolo. The usual sequence is: arrival from the metro, photo of the obelisk, climb to the Pincio, descent and off along the Corso to shop, all in 40 minutes, with the basilica skipped because it was closed for lunch. It's a way to see nothing.

The recommended sequence is this. Arrive around 10:00 on a weekday morning, when the basilica has just opened and the square is still empty. First Santa Maria del Popolo, calmly, with coins for the chapel lights: budget a solid hour, because between Caravaggio, the Chigi Chapel, Bramante's choir and Sansovino's tombs there are five centuries of art history in 500 square meters. Coming out, the Porta del Popolo from both sides: first the inner facade by Bernini, then you pass under the arch and look at the 16th-century outer one, to understand the difference in language. Then the center of the square and the obelisk. Then the two twin churches, one after the other, to compare their plans. Only at the end the Pincio, arriving toward late afternoon, when the light from the west lights up the facades and the terrace is at its best.

Two practical warnings that are worth more than many generic tips. The first: Roman churches close for lunch, and the basilica is no exception on weekdays, so scheduling the visit for 13:00 means finding the door pulled to. The second: on Sundays the basilica opens only in the afternoon, and the square is at its most crowded. If you have only one day and want to see the Caravaggios, the right day is Saturday, with continuous hours from 10:30 to 18:30. A church's opening hours are the variable that ruins more visits in Rome than anything else.

Another Well-Known Fact, Though Rarely Mentioned

Everyone knows the obelisk at the center of Piazza del Popolo is Egyptian. What almost nobody considers is its Roman career: this monolith is an object recycled three times by three different powers, each of which loaded it with a meaning opposite to the one before.

First life: Heliopolis, temple of the Sun, 13th century BC. The shaft is a solar sign inscribed with the names of the pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, and it served an Egyptian cult within a sacred Egyptian enclosure. Second life: in 10 BC Octavian Augustus had it taken down, loaded onto a transport ship built specifically for the purpose, and brought to Rome, where it was erected on the spina of the Circus Maximus. Here it is no longer a religious sign: it is a trophy, the physical proof that Ptolemaic Egypt had fallen and that the victor can move the mountains of the defeated. Chariots circled around it for centuries, with the crowd not even looking at it. Third life: the circus was buried, the obelisk collapsed and disappeared, it was found again in 1587 broken into three pieces, and in 1589 Domenico Fontana raised it here for Sixtus V, with a cross on top. A pagan solar symbol became the road sign of a Christian pilgrimage route.

The technical detail that makes the story even more extraordinary: the shaft measures 25.90 meters, and with base and cross it reaches 36.50 meters, and in 1589 all of this was set upright with winches, ropes and human strength. Fontana had already done the same operation three years earlier in St. Peter's Square, and from that worksite he drew the manual that made the feat repeatable. Piazza del Popolo therefore holds not only an Egyptian monument, but proof of a technical primacy of the late Italian Renaissance that is taken for granted today and was anything but obvious back then.

The Right Photo to Take in Piazza del Popolo

The photographs people take away from this square are almost always the same, and almost always wrong. Here is what I think: the shot from the Pincio balustrade with the obelisk at the center and the dome of St. Peter's in the background is beautiful, and 10,000 people take it every day, which makes it a postcard, not a photograph. If you want it, take it, but take it at the right moment and then look for a different one.

The right moment for the terrace is sunset, because the sun sets exactly behind the dome of St. Peter's, and for 20 minutes the square below shifts from gray to gold. In winter it happens early, around 17:00, in midsummer after 20:00. Arrive 40 minutes before, because the central balustrade fills up and a spot in the front row is not negotiable. Anyone with a tripod should leave it at home: there is no room on the balcony, and on crowded evenings it becomes an obstacle for everyone.

The three shots I really recommend, and that almost nobody takes. The first: from the center of the square, at the foot of the obelisk, with the lens pointed toward the Tridente, so that the two twin churches and the three street openings all fit in one frame. Taken early in the morning, with the square empty, it's the photo that explains Rome's urban layout better than any map. The second: under the Porta del Popolo, in line with the arch, looking into the square, with the obelisk framed by the Berninian archway. It's the view travelers on the Grand Tour had on arrival, and it's the most moving photo to take here if you know the history. The third, for those with patience: the Valadier ramps seen from below on a day of light rain, when the wet travertine reflects and the trees are glossy. Inside the basilica, flash is prohibited and must be respected. Caravaggio's canvases don't photograph well anyway, and it's worth more to just look at them.

Some important events that happened here in history

The grimmest event is the one of November 23, 1825, and it's worth telling in full, because it's the reason for the plaque that almost nobody notices next to the Porta del Popolo. That day, two Carbonari, Angelo Targhini, born in Brescia in 1799, and Leonida Montanari, born in Cesena in 1800, were executed in Piazza del Popolo. Targhini was the son of Pope Pius VII's cook and most likely a cook himself. Montanari was a surgeon and the town doctor of Rocca di Papa. They had been sentenced to death for lese majesty after an attempted murder of an informer in their organization, a certain Spontini. The executioner was Mastro Titta, who in his memoirs notes that the two went up the scaffold with the greatest frankness, refused to repent, and declared themselves innocent, Carbonari and unbelievers. In 1909, when a united Italy could finally commemorate them, the plaque by sculptor Lorenzo Cozza was set into the side of the carabinieri barracks, to the left of the door.

On May 19, 1817, a triple beheading took place in Piazza del Popolo, witnessed by Lord Byron, who wrote about it to his publisher. The page he drew from it is one of the most cited documents on the relationship between the Romantic traveler and papal justice. Charles Dickens, in Italy 30 years later, witnessed an execution carried out by Bugatti on March 8, 1845, and recounted it in his Italian travel writings. His description of the crowd, the street vendors, and the festive anticipation is one of the fiercest testimonies ever written about the public at the gallows. The audience at Roman executions was a mass spectacle, with paid seats at the windows.

Other events have a different tone. On December 23, 1655, the solemn entrance of Queen Christina of Sweden under the arch, just redesigned by Bernini, was the most expensive image-making operation of the seventeenth-century Church. In 1589, the raising of the obelisk drew an enormous crowd and was a technical event before it was a religious one. Between 1798 and 1809, the two entries of Napoleonic troops into Rome changed the fate of the square, because the Valadier project was born out of the French occupation. In 1936, the large niche under the terrace hosted the opening of the exhibition of the renovated Vergine aqueduct. In the twentieth century and up to today, Piazza del Popolo has become the place for political rallies, concerts, and union demonstrations in Rome. Its capacity of up to 65,000 people and its pedestrian zone make it the political stage of the city, and there's no season when it isn't occupied by a stage.

Who has passed through Piazza del Popolo

For 15 centuries, anyone arriving in Rome from the north came through here, which makes the list practically endless. It's worth singling out a few documented names.

Queen Christina of Sweden, an abdicated queen and convert, entered under the Porta del Popolo on December 23, 1655, in a procession organized by the Holy See. For her, Bernini had redesigned the inner façade, with the inscription of the happy and auspicious entrance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived in Rome from September 3, 1786, to June 18, 1788, in an apartment at Via del Corso 18, only a few dozen meters from the square, together with his friend, the painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. The apartment is today the Casa di Goethe, a museum and cultural center opened on May 30, 1997, and the only German museum abroad, where original drawings by Tischbein are preserved. Anyone who arrives in Piazza del Popolo and takes Via del Corso walks right past that doorway without knowing it.

Martin Luther, as a member of the Augustinian order, stayed in Rome during his trip there in the convent attached to Santa Maria del Popolo. The future reformer slept a few steps from the chapels we are describing, a detail that is worth a chapter in European history. Lord Byron was here on May 19, 1817, and Charles Dickens in March 1845, both under gloomy circumstances.

Then there are the artists who worked within this perimeter, and they are the greatest names of four centuries: Bramante in the choir of the basilica, Raphael in the Chigi Chapel, Pinturicchio in the vaults, Andrea Bregno and Andrea Sansovino in the tombs, Guillaume de Marcillat in the stained glass, Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci in the Cerasi Chapel, Carlo Maderno in the extension, Domenico Fontana on the obelisk, Nanni di Baccio Bigio and Francesco Mochi at the outer door, Gian Lorenzo Bernini at the inner door and on the Chigi statues, Carlo Rainaldi and Carlo Fontana on the twin churches, Giuseppe Valadier on the square and the Pincio. Few places in Rome concentrate a list like this.

In the twentieth century the square entered the popular imagination in other ways. The opening track of Claudio Baglioni's 1972 album Questo piccolo grande amore owes its title to the square, which has the same name. Between the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the steps and low walls were a meeting place for Roman dark kids, a cultural phenomenon that anyone of a certain age remembers very well. Marches, rallies, New Year's Eve celebrations, May Day concerts and league championship finals have all passed through the square: if there is a place where Rome counts itself, it's this one.

Frequently asked questions about Piazza del Popolo

How much does it cost to enter Piazza del Popolo?

Entering Piazza del Popolo costs nothing: it is a public pedestrian square open 24 hours a day, with no ticket and no opening hours. Entry to the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo and to the two twin churches on the southern side of the square is also free.

Do you need a reservation to visit Piazza del Popolo?

No, you don't need a reservation to visit Piazza del Popolo, either for the square or for the churches that face onto it. A reservation is, however, required for the Galleria Borghese, which is in the park you reach by climbing the Pincio hill, which closes the square to the east.

How long does it take to visit Piazza del Popolo?

The square itself needs only 20 minutes, because it is an open space that you can take in quickly. The real time goes to the interiors: a good hour for Santa Maria del Popolo if you want to look at the chapels one by one, 20 minutes for the two twin churches, and 40 minutes for the climb up the Pincio with a stop at the Pincio Terrace, for a total of about three hours.

What is there to see inside the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo?

The basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, set against the walls to the left of the Porta del Popolo, houses two paintings by Caravaggio, a chapel designed by Raphael, sculptures by Bernini, frescoes by Pinturicchio, the tombs of Andrea Sansovino and Andrea Bregno, a choir by Bramante and French stained glass windows of the 16th century. From outside it is the most sober building in the square, and for this reason many visitors walk past it without going in.

How tall is the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo?

The Flaminio obelisk, at the center of Piazza del Popolo, has a shaft of Egyptian granite that measures 25.90 meters. With the base and the cross crowning it, the monument reaches a height of 36.50 meters. It is the oldest monument in the square, almost two millennia old, and it had originally been made for the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis.

Why are they called twin churches if they aren't really identical?

The two churches on the southern side of Piazza del Popolo, Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto, are called twins because in photographs they look identical, with the same columned portico and the same dome, but in reality they are not: the eastern plot, toward Via del Babuino, was narrower than the western one, and the architects had to use different devices to make the two facades look the same.

What is there to see around Piazza del Popolo on foot?

From Piazza del Popolo, a few minutes' walk gets you to some of the best things in Rome without taking any transport. Along Via del Babuino you reach Piazza di Spagna and the Trinità dei Monti staircase in about 10 minutes, while along Via di Ripetta you come across the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis museum, both less than a quarter of an hour away.

How to Actually Visit Piazza del Popolo: Duration, Route, Guide

The square itself needs only 20 minutes: it is an open space and you can take it in quickly. The real time goes to the interiors. Plan on a good hour for Santa Maria del Popolo if you want to look at the chapels one by one, 20 minutes for the two twin churches, and 40 minutes for the climb up the Pincio with a stop at the Pincio Terrace. A complete, unhurried visit therefore takes a good three hours, and if you continue on to Villa Borghese it becomes a half day.

On the question of whether you need a guide, the verdict is clear: for the square, no, for the basilica, yes, or at least a good reading aid. In front of the Cerasi Chapel, the difference between someone who knows what they are looking at and someone who doesn't is total, and it's worth arriving prepared. Anyone who organizes groups, corporate incentives or private tours in Rome will find a professional partner in TourLeaderPro's Rome services, which works with certified tour leaders.

Piazza del Popolo with Kids

The square is one of the most convenient spots in the center for families with small children: it's flat, entirely pedestrian, free of traffic, and has room to run around. The lions on the obelisk always work, and so do the dolphins of the two fountains. The mounted police horses and the carriages passing through are a guaranteed draw. The stroller rolls without trouble on the paving, which is even and not uneven sanpietrino. The climb to the Pincio with a stroller is done by the Valadier ramps, not the staircase. They have a gentle slope and are drivable for exactly this reason. Once at the top, the avenues of the Pincio and Villa Borghese offer shade, lawns, the little lake, and rental of rickshaws. In churches, ask the children to speak quietly. They are places of worship in use.

Accessibility of Piazza del Popolo

The level of the square is wheelchair accessible without obstacles: a flat, continuous surface with no steps between the gate and the Tridente. The basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo has a few steps at the entrance, and anyone who needs assistance should contact the basilica staff. The climb to the Pincio by wheelchair is possible via the drivable ramps, but the slope is continuous and requires an companion. The easy alternative is to reach the top from inside Villa Borghese, where the avenues are flat. For the Flaminio metro station, it's worth checking in advance the availability of the lifts on the official channel of the transit operator, because the equipment at the Line A stations is not uniform.

How much it costs and how to save

Piazza del Popolo costs nothing. The basilica costs nothing, the two twin churches cost nothing, the Pincio Terrace costs nothing, and strolling among the busts costs nothing. The only expenses are the coins for lighting the chapels, the metro ticket, and whatever you choose to spend at the tables on the square, where a seated coffee costs what it does in any monumental square in Rome, that is, quite a lot. If you want to save, drink at the counter in one of the side streets. Just 20 meters down Via di Ripetta is enough to halve the bill. I'll add that in an area like this, the real saving is time: half a day here offers more free art than many paid museums.

What to see around Piazza del Popolo within 10 minutes on foot

The location is the main strength. From here, walking just a few minutes, you can reach some of the best things in Rome without ever taking a vehicle. Along Via del Babuino you arrive at Piazza di Spagna and the staircase of Trinità dei Monti in about 10 minutes. Along Via di Ripetta you pass the Mausoleum of Augustus and the museum of the Ara Pacis, both less than a quarter of an hour away. Climbing to the Pincio and continuing on, you enter Villa Borghese and, with a mandatory reservation and time slot, the Galleria Borghese. Along Via del Corso, heading south, you go straight to Piazza Venezia, with detours along the way to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.

When to go and when to avoid Piazza del Popolo

The best time of all is early morning on a weekday off-season, between November and February, excluding holidays. The square is almost empty, the low light lights up the travertine, and there's no one in the churches. The second best time is late afternoon toward sunset, with the climb to the Pincio. Avoid: Saturday afternoon and Sunday, when the Corso pours a continuous crowd into the square. Days with events or concerts, when the square is fenced off and the obelisk stays inside an enclosure. Full August at noon, because there is no shade here and it's hectares of stone in the sun. If you're planning your trip from outside Italy, you'll find a general overview in ItalyPlanner's guide to things to see in Rome, and a ready-made itinerary on the page dedicated to three days in Rome.

Quick questions about Piazza del Popolo

How much does it cost to enter Piazza del Popolo?

Nothing. Piazza del Popolo is a public pedestrian zone, open 24 hours a day, with no ticket and no hours. Entry to the basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo and to the two twin churches is also free.

Do I need to book to visit Piazza del Popolo?

No, neither for the square nor for the churches. Booking is needed for the Galleria Borghese, which you reach on foot by climbing to the Pincio and crossing the park, and which works with time-slot entries.

How do you get to Piazza del Popolo by metro?

Take Line A to the Flaminio-Piazza del Popolo stop, which opened on February 16, 1980 and connects to the Piazzale Flaminio station of the Roma Nord railway. From the exit, cross the piazzale, pass through the Porta del Popolo, and you're in the square in less than five minutes.

Can you get to Piazza del Popolo by car?

No. The square is pedestrian, and the area falls within the limited traffic zone (ZTL) of the Historic Center. If you arrive by car, you have to park outside the restricted area and finish the trip by metro or on foot.

How big is Piazza del Popolo?

About 16,000 square meters of pedestrian island, with an authorized capacity that reaches 65,000 people on major occasions. It is one of the largest squares in Rome, which is why it hosts rallies and concerts.

How tall is the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo?

The shaft measures 25.90 meters. With the base and the cross on top, the monument reaches 36.50 meters. It was brought to Rome in 10 BC at the wish of Augustus and raised here by Domenico Fontana in 1589.

Why is it called Piazza del Popolo?

There are two explanations, and neither has been definitively proven. The first links the name to the subscription of the Roman people that financed the chapel of Pasquale II in 1099. The second derives Popolo from the Latin populus, which means poplar, referring to the grove that tradition places here.

Which Caravaggio paintings can you see in Piazza del Popolo?

Two, in the Cerasi Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo: the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter, commissioned by Tiberio Cerasi in September 1600. On the altar of the same chapel is the altarpiece with the Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci.

How long does a visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo take?

Half an hour to see the essentials, a good hour to look at the chapels one by one, Bramante's choir, Sansovino's tombs and the stained glass of Guillaume de Marcillat.

What are the opening hours of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo?

The basilica's official website lists Monday to Friday 10.30-12.30 and 16.00-18.30, Saturday 10.30-18.30, and Sunday and holidays 16.30-18.30. Opening hours of Roman churches change with liturgical celebrations and should be checked again on the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo website before your visit.

Can you take photographs in Piazza del Popolo and in the churches?

Outdoors, yes, with no limits. Inside the churches, you may photograph without flash and without a tripod, and you may not photograph during celebrations. Drones over the Historic Center of Rome are subject to bans and permits: don't fly them here.

Is Piazza del Popolo wheelchair accessible?

The square's surface is, entirely: a regular surface, no steps, no traffic. The basilica has steps at the entrance. To go up to the Pincio, use Valadier's carriage ramps, which have a continuous slope, or reach the top from inside Villa Borghese, where the avenues are level.

Why are the two churches of Piazza del Popolo called twins?

Because of their exterior, which is designed to look identical. In reality, Santa Maria dei Miracoli has a circular plan and Santa Maria in Montesanto has an elliptical plan, because the two lots available had different widths. The symmetry is a designed optical effect.

What is the difference between Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto?

The first, between Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta, was begun in 1675, completed in 1679 and opened to the public two years later, with an octagonal dome by Carlo Fontana covered in slate tiles. The second, between Via del Corso and Via del Babuino, was begun in 1662, resumed in 1673 and completed in 1679, and since 1953 it has been the home of the Messa degli Artisti.

What is the Messa degli Artisti?

A celebration dedicated to the world of art and entertainment, conceived in 1941 by Monsignor Ennio Francia and held since 1953 in Santa Maria in Montesanto, which is why Romans call it the church of the artists.

Were executions really carried out in Piazza del Popolo?

Yes. It was one of the main sites of public executions in the Papal States, together with Campo de' Fiori and the Velabro area. The most famous executioner was Giovanni Battista Bugatti, known as Mastro Titta, in office from 1796 for 68 years and responsible for about 514 executions by 1864.

What is the plaque next to the Porta del Popolo?

It commemorates Angelo Targhini and Leonida Montanari, the two Carbonari executed in the square on November 23, 1825. It was walled into the side of the carabinieri barracks, to the left of the gate, in 1909, and it is the work of the sculptor Lorenzo Cozza.

How long does it take to walk up to the Pincio from Piazza del Popolo?

Just under 10 minutes at an easy pace from Valadier's ramps or from the staircase of the eastern exedra. The hill is 61 meters above sea level, and the climb from the square is modest.

Does the Pincio Terrace cost money?

No, access is free, and the terrace is outdoors and open without gates during park hours. The best time is sunset, when the sun sets behind the dome of Saint Peter's.

Is it true that Nero is buried in Piazza del Popolo?

Tradition places the tomb of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, the emperor's paternal family, on the slopes of the Pincio near the square, and says his ashes were laid there. It is a tradition, not an established archaeological fact: the medieval story of the exorcism of 1099 arose precisely from this belief.

Is Piazza del Popolo suitable for children?

Very much so. It's flat, pedestrian and free of traffic, the stroller turns easily, and a short walk away there are the lawns and the little lake in Villa Borghese. The lions of the obelisk and the dolphins of the fountains are the most effective attraction.

When is it best to avoid Piazza del Popolo?

Saturday afternoon and Sunday, because of the crowds coming from the Corso. On event or concert days, when the area is fenced off. At midday in August, because the square offers no shade.

How much time do you need to see Piazza del Popolo and its monuments well?

Three hours at least for the square, the basilica, the twin churches, the gate and the Pincio Terrace. Half a day if you continue into Villa Borghese.

Are there guided tours of Piazza del Popolo?

Yes, and the area is one of the classic starting points for tours of the Historic Center. Those looking for professional assistance for groups, companies or private tours can turn to TourLeaderPro, which works with certified guides in the Rome area.

What to see near Piazza del Popolo?

Piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti along via del Babuino, the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis along via di Ripetta, the Pincio and Villa Borghese climbing from the eastern exedra, and via del Corso toward piazza Venezia. Those planning the trip from abroad will find the same information in English on ItalyPlanner.com.

Our verdict on Piazza del Popolo

In our opinion the point is simple: Piazza del Popolo is crossed by almost everyone and visited by almost no one. People get off the metro, take a photo of the obelisk, climb up to the Pincio, come back down, take via del Corso and leave, and in doing so they pass within 10 meters of two Caravaggios, a chapel designed by Raphael and a choir by Bramante, without going in, because the door is discreet and the facade doesn't shout. Go into that church. Bring coins for the light. Go early in the morning or on Saturday, when the opening hours are continuous. Then return to the center of the square, stand at the foot of the lions and look at the Tridente: in 30 seconds you'll understand how all of modern Rome was planned, and it will have cost you zero euros.

Article written by the editorial team of TourLeaderPro, contact them for Tours and Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? English guides for visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.