Piazza di Spagna Rome
Rome is filled with beautiful plazas (piazzas) where you can spend the morning drinking coffee and chatting with friends, pass the afternoon watching people, and enjoy pizza in a nearby cafe late into the evening. Some, like Campidoglio or San Pietro, are rich with history and traditions; others like Navona are spectacular for their fountains and works of art.

The piazza di Spagna is one of the best known and busiest of Rome's plazas. It is the meeting point for several major streets in the city. Via Condotti is famous all over the world for its numerous boutiques filled with work of designers like Armani, Versace and Valentino. Via Frattina is an elegant street that makes for a delightful stroll. Or there is Via del Babuino with its 17th and 18th century palaces and antique dealers. Running parallel is Via Margutta, the street of the painters.

Of course you don't need to even leave the piazza. Here is where you will find an elegant Bernini fountain. This is also the base of the most famous stairway in Rome. The "Spanish Steps" were so named - as was the plaza - for the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, which is still located on the piazza. From here you can ascend up the stairs, which are adorned with pink azaleas in the spring of the year to the French church, Trinità dei Monti. The pinnacle affords a beautiful view of Rome. But, of course, the real interest here is the stairway itself. In the 18th century the "beautiful people" of Rome would gather on the steps, waiting to be selected as models by the artists of the city. Of course, the presence of attractive young women demanded the attention of the young men of Rome who would come to find love. To this day it is not unusual for visiting women to receive roses - or even wedding proposals - on this romantic stairway.