Rome, The Spanish Steps

Rome’s Main Street, Via Del Corso, leads from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. The street is lined with offices, banks and stores, and just a short stroll to the left or the right brings the traveler to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Colonna with the Column of Marcus Aurélius, Piazza di Spagna with the Spanish Steps, the main Post Office, shopping streets galore, and churches and monuments with a frequency found only in Rome.

We walked to the Piazza di Spagna, named after the Spanish Embassy nearby. The majestic Baroque Spanish Steps, conceived and paid for by the French, were built in the 1700s, and is a magnet for tourists. The glorious sweep of the double flights of steps is artistically divided into well-spaced landings. At the base of the stairway is the boat-shaped Fontana della Barcaccia, a fountain designed by the sculptor Pietro Bernini, the father of Giovanni Bernini who designed the bronze baldachino and the colonade at St. Peter’s Basilica.

At the top of the stairway is the Trinita dei Monti (Church of Trinity of the Mountains), a French church built in the 1490s.