Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona in rione Parione is the signature long-oval baroque square of Rome. Its shape comes straight from the 1st-century Stadium of Domitian: a Greek-style athletics track whose footprint medieval houses grew over, preserving the ancient arena outline. In the 17th century, Pope Innocent X of the Pamphilj family turned the square into his family forum - with Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers of 1651, grouping personifications of the Nile, Danube, Ganges and Rio de la Plata around an Egyptian obelisk, and Borromini's sweeping concave facade for Sant Agnese in Agone. Today the piazza is busy day and night: street painters, trick musicians, tourist trattorie, and Romans drifting between the fountains; in December the traditional Befana toy market sets up here.