The Rome Index
Piazza del Popolo
The northern gateway to Rome — an oval piazza, twin churches, and a hilltop terrace above.
The piazza
One of Rome's largest and most elegant squares, anchored by an Egyptian obelisk and flanked by twin Baroque churches that appear identical but aren't — spot the differences in their domes.
Santa Maria del Popolo
A church on the piazza's edge with two Caravaggio paintings inside the Cerasi Chapel, easy to overlook and rarely crowded even at peak season.
The terrace above
A short climb through the Pincian Hill gardens reaches a terrace with one of the best views over the piazza and the city beyond — free, and quieter than the Gianicolo.
The 'twin' churches aren't identical
Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto look symmetrical from the piazza but have different dome shapes and slightly different footprints — a deliberate optical trick by the architects to compensate for the two buildings sitting on plots of different sizes and shapes, invisible until you look closely.
The obelisk's older history
The Egyptian obelisk at the piazza's centre originally stood in Heliopolis over 3,000 years ago before being brought to Rome by Augustus and displayed in the Circus Maximus — it was moved to its current location only in the 16th century, meaning the obelisk itself predates the piazza around it by well over two millennia.
