Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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The view from the top of the Spanish Steps
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Barcaccia
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Spagna
The Piazza di Spagna was named after the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, although
the staircase, designed by the Italian Francesco de Sanctis and built in 1725 with a legacy
from the French, leads to the French Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti. In the late 1700s the
area was much loved by English visitors on the Grand Tour and was known to locals as
er
ghetto de l'inglesi
(the English ghetto). Keats lived for a short time in an apartment over-
looking the Spanish Steps, and died here of tuberculosis at the age of 25. The rooms are
now a museum devoted to the Romantics, especially Keats.
At the foot of the steps, the fountain of a sinking boat, the
Barcaccia
(1627), is believed to
be by Pietro Bernini, father of the more famous Gian Lorenzo. It's fed from a low-pres-
sure aqueduct, hence the low-key nature of the central fountain. Bees and suns decorate
the structure, symbols of the commissioning Barbarini family. Opposite, Via dei Condotti
is Rome's most exclusive shopping street, glittering with big-name designers such as
Gucci, Bulgari and Prada.
To the southeast of the piazza, adjacent Piazza Mignanelli is dominated by the Colonna
dell'Immacolata, built in 1857 to celebrate Pope Pius IX's declaration of the Immaculate
Conception.
