Besides the four places mentioned in the article on the Must-see squares of Rome, which are the best known, we can count many other rich of interest. Here are the 6 best, then our Top 16:
1. Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo
The Piazza del Popolo (which means “People’s Square”) is a vast pedestrian area, airy and pleasant. It is also a popular square where Romans and tourists meet, and often hosts gatherings and festivities. It is at one end of Via del Corso, the long shopping street whose Piazza Venezia is at the other end. It is also dominated by the Pincian hill with its pretty park and terrace. There is the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, one of the most beautiful churches in the city with paintings of Caravaggio.
This square was first converted in the 16th century when it was square, to offer a majestic entrance when arriving in Rome from the north. It was redeveloped by Valadier in the 19th century, with a statue in the center and a large Egyptian obelisk.
2. Piazza della Bocca della Verità
Piazza della Bocca della Verità
Piazza della Boccà de la Verità is located at the place of the ancient Forum Boarium. It is one of the most suggestive of the city, occupied by Roman temples of remarkable conservation and by the beautiful church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin with a beautiful Romanesque bell tower and its medieval interior. Under its porch is preserved the famous manhole, whose place took its name, «the mouth of truth». Other Roman buildings are on the Velabrum side, including the Arch of Janus with its four open sides.
3. Piazza Venezia
Piazza Venezia
Hard to miss in Rome, the Piazza di Venezia (Square of Venice) is located near the Capitoline hill, between the Roman Forum and the long Via del Corso, marking the edge of the plain of Campo Marzio. It is one of the main traffic nodes of the city center, which is especially marked by the imposing white mass of the Victor Emmanuel II Monument, the Vittoriano, neoclassical monument built at the end of the 19th century inspired by the Pergamon Altar.
4. Campo dei Fiori
Campo dei Fiori
Campo dei Fiori, literally “field of flowers” in English, is a lively square in the centre of Rome, which hosts a food and flower market in the morning. In the center was erected late nineteenth a statue of Giordano Bruno, a metaphysical monk condemned here to the stake for heresy in 1600.
This square is lively at all hours, with many bars, a few restaurants, and even historic bakeries.
5. Piazza Farnese
Piazza Farnese
Just behind the previous one, Piazza Farnese, with a completely different style, austere but elegant, prestigious but not very lively. It is opposite one of the most beautiful palaces in Rome, the Palazzo Farnese, which houses the French embassy in Italy. Originally this square was arranged to create a masterful access to the palace of Cardinal Farnese. Two beautiful antique bathtubs, from the Baths of Caracalla, were moved here to adapt them into fountains.
6. Piazza della Rotonda
Piazza della Rotonda
The charming Piazza della Rotonda is also known as the Pantheon Square. It is dominated by the presence of the latter located south of the square, which also popularly called Rotonna by the Romans. One can enjoy the magical atmosphere of the place for example by sitting on the steps around the fountain. The latter is a very pretty 16th century Renaissance work by Giacomo della Porta. It highlights a small Egyptian obelisk from the time of Ramses II.
Map of Rome with squares
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The 15 most beautiful squares
There are also other beautiful squares, often in front of famous monuments:
7. Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere
Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere
The beautiful Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere is the heart of the picturesque Trastevere district. It owes much to the very pretty church of the same name Santa Maria in Trastevere, as well as to the beautiful historical fountain and the pretty palaces that surround it.
8. Piazza Colonna
Piazza Colonna
Between Piazza di Montecitorio and Via del Corso, Piazza Colonna was built at the end of the 16th century. It is marked by the presence of the Marcus Aurelius’s Column, whose carved frieze celebrates the victories of the Roman emperor in the 2nd century AD, inspired by the older Trajan’s Column.
9. Piazza del Quirinale
Piazza del Quirinale
Piazza del Quirinale is located high on the hill of the same name, in front of the Italian Presidential Palace, and not far from the Trevi Fountain. The vast pedestrian area is bordered by a road and surrounded by beautiful palaces. It also stands out for its original fountain, where the ancient colossal Fountain of the Dioscuri are accompanied by their horses and an ancient obelisk.
10. Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano
Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano
The Lateran Square (Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in Italian) is essentially a passageway. Yet in front of the Apostolic Palace, the Lateran Mausoleum and a side facade of the Lateran Basilica, stands the highest Egyptian obelisk in Rome that has preserved its beautiful hieroglyphs.
11. Piazza Mattei
Piazza Mattei
Piazza Mattei is in the middle of the Roman ghetto, with its small premises and bars, and in the center one of the most charming fountains of Rome, the Turtles Fountain, created like many others by Giacomo della Porta towards the end of the sixteenth century.
12. Piazza della Minerva
Piazza della Minerva
Piazza della Minerva, facing the right side of the Pantheon, takes its name from the Temple of Minerva which was located there. It faces the church with a Gothic interior of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and stands out especially with the beautiful elephant carved by Bernini who supports a small Egyptian obelisk.
13. Piazza di Pietra
Piazza di Pietra
A small rectangular and picturesque pedestrian square in the heart of the Champ de Mars, Piazza di Pietra has one side bordered by a colonnade of the ancient Temple of Hadrian, integrated into the Stock exchange.
14. Piazza della Madonna dei Monti
Piazza della Madonna dei Monti
Piazza della Madonna dei Monti is a charming little square full of life, in the heart of the Monti district, an area with many bars and small restaurants. Many people meet there, sometimes sitting on the steps surrounding the pretty fountain.
15. Piazza di Montecitorio
Piazza di Montecitorio
In the heart of the Campo Marzio, Piazza di Montecitorio, just behind Piazza Colonna, is a pretty space in front of the facade of the palace of the same name and which houses the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament. In front, an obelisk was erected that served at the time of Augustus as a needle for a giant sundial.
16. Piazza della Repubblica
Piazza della Repubblica
Piazza della Repubblica (the Republic square), is not the most picturesque with its large roundabout. It is modern with its pretty fountain with jets and its palaces following an elliptical line that evokes the ancient exedra of the Baths of Diocletian whose halls and vestiges are on the other side of the square including the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels.
