1 Campidoglio
2 Castel Sant'Angelo
3 Colosseum (Colosseo)
4 Palazzo Barberini
5 Pantheon
6 Piazza Navona
7 Roman Forum (Foro Romano)
8 San Clemente
9 Sistine Chapel & Vatican Museums
10 St Peter's (San Pietro)
One of the world's most beautiful squares owes its elongated shape to the ancient Roman stadium over which it was built.
Although the best effect can be had by approaching Piazza Navona from the southeast end, whichever of the narrow streets you take, this massive space in the cramped historical centre is always breathtaking. To its north, are remains of the entrance to the stadium that Emperor Domitian built in the 1st century AD.
The piazza's centrepiece is Bernini's spectacular Fontana dei Fiumi (fountain of the rivers, 1651) featuring symbolic representations of the rivers Ganges, Danube, Plate and Nile (blindfolded because its source was then unknown) clinging to a massive artificial cliff-face while sea monsters lurk beneath. The figure at the centre of the fountain to the southeast is another Bernini work, Il Moro (the moor); the figures of Neptune and others on the third fountain are 19th-century. This has always been a hub of Roman social life; there was a market here for centuries and the piazza used to be flooded in August to form a vast watery playground for rich and poor alike. Today it is flooded by musicians, artists, locals and visitors who flock to its bars for hours at a time.Address: Piazza Navona
Restaurant: Lots of bars, tend to be expensive but worth it (Moderately priced)
Bus: 46, 62, 64 to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II; 70, 81, 87, 115, 186, 492, 628 to Corso del Rinascimento
Practical: December Christmas fair, street performers all year
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