B&B Rome - To visit: Piazza di Spagna

At only one stop from Saint Peter Underground Station located next to the B&B in Rome Best Vatican (Metro A Ottaviano) you can easily reach Piazza di Spagna, one of the most important reference points of the roman shopping where Via Condotti, via del Babbuino and via del Corso intersect. Piazza di Spagna with the Spanish Steps remains one of the most famous squares in Rome. It derived its name from the Spanish palace that hosts the embassy of the Iberic State. In the centre of the square there is the famous Fontana Della Barcaccia that goes back to the first baroque period and which was built by the important architect Pietro Bernini and by his son, the most celebrated Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The monumental Spanish Steps made of 135 steps was inaugurated by pope Benedetto XIII for the Jubilee in the 1725 and it was built (thanks to French founds in 1721-1725) to link the Spanish Bubonic embassy (from which the square takes its name)to the church of Trinità dei Monti.

It was planned by Alessandro Specchi and Francesco De Sanctis after long discussions by generations and generations of architects studying the best way to urbanise the steep hillside of the Pincio so as to connect it easily to the church. The solution selected was the one proposed by Francesco De Sanctis: an enormous flight of steps embellished by numerous garden terraces to be decorated with beautiful flowers and plants during spring and summer.
This sumptuous flight of steps is moreover placed at the top of a long axe that goes straight towards the Tevere and it is planned so that to create progressively new scenic effects while coming down as was typical in baroque architecture where the creation of long and deep perspectives and views acquired an important monumental value.