Walk 1

Piazza Navona, San Luigi, S Agostino

See other pages for Pantheon -- Santa Maria Sopra Minerva; Ignazio --Trevi; Spagna -- Corso, lanes

Piazza Navona

A good place to start your visit to Rome is at Piazza Navona, the greatest square of the city. Great, in the sense of being wonderful and lively, beautiful, large. Night and day, it's a busy place. This piazza is like the living room of Rome, a place for locals and visitors alike. It's considered one of the most outstanding outdoor urban spaces in the world. You will probably return here several times in your visit to Rome, because it is right in the middle of town and has many features that will lure you back.

Originally built as a racetrack by the ancient Roman Emperor Domitian, it still retains the original oval shape that gives it a unique appearance, lined with restaurants and palaces. The piazza is enclosed by faded pastel facades all around that produce a rich feeling of antiquity. It's a place to have some fun with something for everybody.

One of the most beautiful focal points of the Piazza Navona is the fountain of the Four Rivers, right in the center. It was designed by Bernini, that greatest of all baroque artists in Rome. There are four principal statues that represent the four major rivers of the great continents known at that time. You want to walk all the way around this wonderful sculptural complex and see it from all angles, and especially from the corner where you get the church in the backdrop.

Stand in front on the opposite side of the piazza for a nice angle, with the church behind those twin towers, and the fountain with the obelisk. It's just a breathtaking sight. It's such a combination of visual treats. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, at his best. He was a great man. He was an architect, a sculptor, a painter, a playwright, and a wonderful diplomat. He worked with nine different popes.

You've got to be clever to get by with nine different popes. We'll take a close look at these fountains to appreciate their beauty and discuss some of the history of the piazza coming up in just a few minutes. But first, let's take a stroll around the piazza and absorb this magical atmosphere. There are some convenient benches all around the fountain where you can sit down or lie down and relax.

The piazza is lined with many attractive looking restaurants, most of them with lovely outdoor terraces that look very appealing. It looks like a nice place to sit down and have a meal. But you'll find much better restaurants within a few blocks of the piazza, with more reasonable prices. However, if you'd like to sit at one of these terrace cafes and have a drink, enjoy some people watching, that's perfectly fine.

Just be aware you'll pay a slightly higher price here for anything. When you sit outdoors in a cafe, it's always more expensive than standing inside at the bar anyway. But sitting down at a cafe terrace can be a lovely way to spend some time. The most famous of these cafes is Tre Scalini, also expensive, but you might enjoy having their tartufo, ice cream made of pure chocolate, using 13 different qualities of cacao from Austria, a secret recipe created here in 1946.

You'll notice that lots of artists have set up their easels here, turning the piazza into an outdoor art gallery. They could do a quick sketch of you, or you could buy an original watercolor with some really beautiful choices here of the various scenes of Rome.

Just be sure it's an actual painting and not some cheap print going for a high price. Most of these artists are honest and very talented. Part of that artistic heritage of the city. Maybe you'd like a caricature of yourself. Make yourself look kind of goofy. It can be done in a pastel or in a charcoal, black and white.

You can talk with the artist and negotiate the price and discuss the style, or perhaps just a straightforward portrait to make yourself look better than a photograph. And there are many other kinds of arts that you can purchase here. There are watercolors, there's oil paintings, and the wonderful thing is these are original works of art, and you're buying it directly from the artist.

There are no middlemen involved, so you're getting a good deal. And often when we're traveling, we want to shop and buy something special. Well, what could be more special than an original painting of the city that you're visiting, especially when it's a city as beautiful as Rome? There has been some kind of a market here in the piazza for the last 500 years, although the art market is more recent.

This is the largest outdoor art market in Rome and perhaps in the entire country. Even if you're not buying, it's always fun to walk around, look at the pictures, talk to the artists, and do some people watching. Many of the artists stay here right up into the evening, which can sometimes get busier than during the daytime. And this is generally a safe place. There are so many people around and the guardians are here to protect you, you can feel very comfortable and secure.

Maybe you'd enjoy a horse carriage ride. It's an easy way to see many of those old cobbled streets in the historic center. You'll generally find local students out for a tour with their teacher. Because the piazza is so beautiful, it can get very crowded. People love to flock here, especially in the high season, which is May through October, and it stays busy right through the evening as a major gathering place of nighttime Rome.

In-depth video about Piazza Navona

Fountain Of The Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi)

This one of the main highlights of Rome that you cannot miss it. They are amazing statues, especially in the morning, like about 9:00 am when it is not crowded, and you can get a good view of it. If you come in midday it's jammed with people, you can hardly see it. So come in the morning, you'll get that great lighting on the church as well to.

Right now, you don't have to worry about crowds. You can watch it in comfort while I describe the history and meaning of these beautiful fountains. But there's nothing like being there, especially to appreciate something so huge and three dimensional and wet, and with the noise of the water and the whole sensation of the piazza, with music in the air. It's an amazing experience.

Fountain of the Four Rivers was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1651 for Pope Innocent X, whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili faced onto the piazza, as did the Church of Sant Agnese in Agone, of which Innocent was the sponsor.

The fountain has four giant heroic statues that represent the four major rivers of the four continents over which the Pope had some authority. In total, they symbolize the power the church had on the four most important areas of the world at that time. The church was involved with profitable trade in these areas and also missionary activities to convert people to the Catholic Church. Each of these huge river gods are strong, muscular characters yet they're in a semi-prostrate position in awe of papal power.

Europe is represented by the Danube, and that statue reaches to touch the Pope's personal coat of arms, since it is the largest river close to Rome. The head of the Nile statue is draped with a loose piece of cloth, meaning that no one at that time knew exactly where the Nile source was. Asia is represented by the Ganges, the sacred river, personified by a solemn, bearded figure who carries long oar that represents the river's navigability. He seems to be the most prominent and noble of all the figures, facing right towards the front of the statue in a prime position. Holding his hand up high, the Rio de la Plata represents the Americas. He's sitting on a pile of coins, symbol of the riches that America could afford to Europe. The word Plata means silver in Spanish. Also he looks scared by a snake showing rich mens fear that their money could be stolen. He raises his arm to symbolize the colonization of the recently subdued American continent.

There's a lion and a palm tree representing Africa. It's a thirsty lion who is happy to be at this fountain so he can lap up some water. Bernini playfully gives us a look at the tail end of the lion on the other side of the statue. The palm tree seems to be blowing in the wind, even though made of solid travertine rock.

The horse represents a connection between Europe and the Americas because it was found on both continents. Bernini had many artistic talent, as sculptor, architect and writer, and the dynamic way he fused these traditions together to tell a historical drama with these statues made this fountain revolutionary when compared to previous Roman projects. As historian Simon Schama said, "at that time, it was surely the greatest water spectacle in any urban space in Europe."

This fountain is a theater in the round, a spectacle of action that invites you to walk all the way around it, observing the different angles, the different characters, the spectacle, water flows and splashes from a jagged and pierced mountainous disorder of travertine marble, cooling the air and making a delightful sound. There are so many small and whimsical items packed into this sculptural ensemble that you'll be continually surprised and delighted.

The obelisk is a monolithic piece of Aswan granite brought from Egypt. Very heavy, yet the obelisk seems to float in the sky, magically suspended above an empty space beneath it. You are left to wonder how can this obelisk possibly be supported over thin air, which adds a magical and dramatic effect to astonish the viewer. Each of the four statues have symbols representing their significance.

It takes a long time to really understand what's going on here. Bernini was master of the Baroque, in which twisted curves and motion provide the framework of the piece, in which these inert chunks of stone have miraculously come to life. Bernini was lucky to get the commission to create this sculpture because the Pope did not want him involved, for various political reasons. But Bernini was already one of the most famous sculptors in Rome and did have many fans, including the Pope's niece, who convinced Bernini to make a small model of the statue, which she put in the Pope's palace and when Innocent the 10th saw the model, he decided it was so wonderful that he had to let Bernini create it.

Public fountains in Rome served multiple purposes. They were highly needed sources of water for neighbors in the centuries prior to home plumbing, and they were monuments to the papal patrons, also they created beautiful works of art for the public to admire.

Piazza Navona has two other fountains, sometimes overlooked because of the magnificence of the Four Rivers. At the southern end is Fontana del Moro, with a basin and four tritons, sculpted by Giacomo della Porta in 1575, and one century later, Bernini added a statue of a Moor, wrestling with a dolphin.

At the northern end is the fountain of Neptune, also created by Giacomo della Porta, in 1574. The work was commissioned by Pope Gregory the 13th, but it was never completed for about 300 years. The fountain remained without sculptures. It was only in the 19th century the statue of Neptune was added, portrayed with his trident fighting with a large octopus. It creates a balance with the fountain of the Moor at the other end of the piazza. Smaller sculptures here illustrate two seahorses, mermaids, and cupids playing with dolphins.

The theatrical setting of the fountain of the Four Rivers is greatly enhanced by the backdrop of the Church of Sant Agnese, with an elaborate convex facade and beautiful dome, flanked by twin bell towers, a spectacular, baroque architectural landmark, designed by Boromini and Carlo Rainaldi. Step inside and be amazed at how the dazzling architecture creates an impression of great size, even though it's contained in a very small area.

Sant Agnese is open to the public, but originally it was the private chapel of Pope Innocent, the 10th. It was part of his palace, and he has his own statue greeting you up above the main door. The Pope could attend mass from his balcony, which he reached from the palace through a private corridor. We seem to be gaining his blessings by just looking up at this magnificent statue.

The church is only as wide as the dome, but thanks to Baroque innovations, it seems much bigger, with the palace of the pope extending out on both sides.

The Piazza Navona has a very long history. It started out in Roman days. It's 2000 years old. Piazza Navona is built on the site of an ancient Roman stadium that was created by the Emperor Domitian back in the first century. And the piazza still follows that same form of the open space of the stadium. Domitian was the son of the Emperor Vespasian, who built the Coliseum, so there was a strong family heritage of creating huge monumental structures.

Some parts of that ancient stadium have survived underneath the piazza. And you can go look at it because the museum was created in the year 2014 after extensive archeological research and reconstruction, to open this up to the public, in a remarkable display of remnants of the original stadium, numerous sculptural fragments and a great deal of information where you can learn about the Roman Empire and the history of the ancient sports. Domitian's Stadium could seat 30,000 people. Entrance to this underground museum is outside the north end of the piazza., as you can learn about on their website. There's nothing visible of these original structures within the current piazza, so I'll continue presenting some contemporary pictures of the piazza. 2000 years ago, the Romans were there to watch the games consisting of gymnastic competitions and races. The Latin word for games was agone, which evolved over time to the word Navona.

The games continued right up into the fourth century, but by the fifth century, the decay of the monument began and subsequently the stadium was used, like other Roman monuments, as a quarry for materials to build other structures. And so the building slowly disappeared. Not much was going on in this location during the Middle Ages, but towards the end of the 15th century, a major city market was transferred here, which turned this into a busy and popular location.

By the middle of the 17th century, it became transformed into a significant example of baroque Roman architecture, especially because of Pope Innocent, the 10th, who built his Pamphili Palace right on the piazza. Today that is still the major building of the piazza, stretching almost the entire length. The palace was built between 1644 and 1650, but the Pamphili family no longer lives there.

Since 1920 the palace has housed the Brazilian embassy, and now part of the palace is a luxury hotel with a rooftop bar that's open to the public. The Pope had those magnificent fountains created and he also enjoyed having water games in which the entire piazza would be flooded, and people could splash around, and the Navy could reenact some nautical battles. For two centuries, this continued until 1866, when the piazza was flooded every Saturday and Sunday in August to celebrate the Pamphili family. But later in the 19th century, the pavement was raised and the market was moved to Campo Dei Fiore in 1869. But they still hold the Christmas market every year in the piazza and have many other festivities here, including major fashion shows, movie production, book fairs, trade shows and music performances.

Piazza Navona is centrally located in Rome, easy to reach on foot within ten or 15 minutes from most of the major attractions, and the sights further away, like the Colosseum and the Vatican, are within two kilometers, so there too, you can walk it. The piazza is right in the center of Rome. And that, my friends, completes our in-depth look at the Piazza Navona.

Upon leaving the Piazza Navona at Corso del Rinascimento, you will come upon the Roman Senate housed in the noble Palazzo Madama, which the Medicis built during the 16th century. Not open to the public, it is guarded by several police standing out front – they always seem to always select the tallest and most handsome officers for this job, coutured in beautiful uniforms designed by Giorgio Armani.

Palazzo Madama was the home of Pope Leo X, who was quite a character, reigning 1513-1521. Leo, successor to Julius II, reigned during the time that St. Peter’s was being constructed and played a major role in raising money for that work, primarily by selling indulgences which supposedly forgave all sins and guaranteed the donor entrance to heaven. This scheme was seen as financial corruption and enraged many, like Martin Luther who responded by breaking away from the Catholic Church and starting the Protestant revolution.

Leo X was one of the popes in the Medici dynasty which ruled Florence for several centuries. The Medicis were among the most powerful families in the world with banking interests extending throughout Europe. Leo, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent who was perhaps the greatest of all Medicis, came to office with an inflated sense of himself. He is famous for declaring “I’ve inherited the papacy so I’m going to enjoy it,” which he did with an extravagant lifestyle that included mistresses and wild soirées in this palace. Perhaps that is why he was the last pope who was not a priest. Another famous Medici, Catherine, lived here until she moved to Paris in 1547 and became the Queen of France. The façade of the palace was built later, in the Baroque style. Today, the Italian Senate meets in here, but the main legislative branch, the Chamber of Deputies or lower house of the Parliament, is housed five blocks over toward Spagna.

SAN LUIGI DEI FRANCESI

From Palazzo Madama, walk one block along Via del Salvatore towards the Pantheon (described in the next section). But along the way there is a major artistic bonus hidden inside a church, San Luigi dei Francesi. It was built in the 16th century as a church for the French community and many people pass right on by without realizing there are some artistic treasures inside.

The main attractions are three paintings by Caravaggio depicting the life of Saint Matthew found in the small Contarelli Chapel on the left front side of San Luigi and put a coin in the light box to bring out Caravaggio’s brilliant colors.

Focus especially on the left painting, one of Caravaggio’s greatest masterpieces, the Calling of St. Matthew. It dramatically depicts Christ pointing his finger at Matthew whose startled response seems to be “You want me?” To get the best angle you need to stand to the right, near the wall, perhaps dodging the frequent crowds who also want to get a look at this stunning painting practically hidden away in this remote corner.

Christ is on the far right side of the painting and has entered the room with Peter, dressed in the golden and blue robe, his traditional colors. Christ’s hand is visually separated from his body by Peter, yet we know that it is Christ pointing. Matthew is the tax collector sitting at the table and counting money along with these ordinary working folks, the kinds of people Caravaggio specialized in painting to show the true grit of real life. Each figure is realistically illuminated with highlights and shadows that give real substance.

Two other paintings in this chapel depict scenes of Matthew: on the right side, he is dying a martyr, and in the middle, he is being dictated to by an angel who seems to be counting the blessed ideas with his fingers – divine inspiration coming to Matthew while he is writing the Gospel. All three canvases were painted for this Chapel, Caravaggio’s earliest religious work, and they’ve been here ever since.

Caravaggio is noted for the bright highlights and shadows you see here, the chiaroscuro effects of the light and shadows creating three-dimensionality with motion. This lighting effect was invented by Caravaggio and had enormous influence on most artists who followed him, yet he never had a “school” of apprentices. In his personal life, the artist was a loner, a tragic figure who did not get along well with others and was forced to permanently flee from Rome after killing someone in a fight several blocks from this church. On the pillar opposite the 1st chapel is a monument to French soldiers who fell at the siege of Rome in 1849.

Bonus: SANT’ AGOSTINO

To visit a similar church, walk two blocks (100m) north to Sant’ Agostino, featuring Sansovino’s beautiful statue of the Madonna del Parto (Our Lady of Childbirth) in a niche by the entrance. This statue (reputedly with healing powers) is a masterpiece well-worth seeing, so climb those steps for a look inside.

You will also find Caravaggio’s Madonna of Loreto in the first chapel on the left. In the Nave, on the 3rd pillar to the left, Raphael’s Prophet Isaiah, holding a scroll, painted in 1512. In the execution of this work the great master has been visibly influenced by Michaelangelo’s prophets in the Sistine Chapel.

Erected in 1479-83, the church was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV and designed by architect Baccio Pontelli (the same pair who also constructed the Sistine Chapel). Its facade was built was travertine salvaged from the ruins of the Colosseum. The interior, in the form of a Latin cross, was restored in 1750, and finally in 1860, when it was adorned with frescoes by Gagliardi.

Palazzo Altemps, another museum of ancient history you might want to visit for its fine collection of classical statues, is located one block west in a fully-renovated 15th century palace on Piazza Sant’Apollinare. Baroque frescos on some walls, enhanced by modern installations with excellent lighting and viewing conditions, add to the delightful setting. The National Museum has installed its finest pieces in this one small building, so you can view the ancient sculpture in one hour and skip the rest that are on display in the larger branch of the National Museum near Piazza delle Republica found behind the Baths of Diocletian you will be seeing in that walk.

When finished with these sites continue one block on a pedestrian alley, Via Giustiniani, to the Pantheon.