The Rome Index
Piazza Navona
A Baroque square built over the outline of an ancient Roman stadium.
Why it's shaped like that
The piazza traces the exact oval footprint of Domitian's 1st-century stadium, which once hosted athletic contests on the same ground.
What to see
Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers sits at the center, facing a rival church facade by Borromini — the two were famous professional rivals.
Where to sit
Café prices right on the piazza run high for the view; a short walk into the surrounding streets gets the same atmosphere for less.
The three fountains
Beyond Bernini's central Four Rivers Fountain, two further fountains anchor the piazza's north and south ends — the Fountain of Neptune and the Fountain of the Moor — both less photographed but part of the same coherent Baroque water-feature scheme originally designed to showcase Pope Innocent X's restoration of the Acqua Vergine aqueduct.
Street artists and performers
The piazza has a long-standing tradition of portrait artists, caricaturists and street performers working the crowds, particularly in the evening — a genuinely old Roman custom rather than a purely modern tourist phenomenon, dating back centuries to when the square itself was periodically flooded for public spectacles.
