piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo, around 17,000 square metres, is the great northern entrance square of Rome, where the ancient Via Flaminia delivered travellers into the city. In the centre rises the Obelisco Flaminio, an Egyptian obelisk from the reign of Ramesses II that Augustus shipped from Heliopolis in 10 BC and first set up in the Circus Maximus. The square as you see it was laid out by Giuseppe Valadier between 1811 and 1822 in a vast oval neoclassical design with four lion fountains and the sweeping ramp up to the Pincio hill. To the south the twin churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto and Santa Maria dei Miracoli frame the famous gate of the Tridente. Entering through the Porta del Popolo, you see the same first view of the city that baroque pilgrims saw; the Pincio terrace above offers one of Rome's great sunset views.