Spanish Steps & Piazza di Spagna

The Spanish Steps are Rome's grandest outdoor stairway and one of its great meeting places. Built in the 1720s to designs by Francesco De Sanctis and funded by a French bequest, they climb in graceful curves and terraces from Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinità dei Monti, whose twin bell towers and obelisk crown the top; the name comes from the Spanish embassy to the Holy See, which still stands on the piazza below. At the foot, the Barcaccia, a half-sunken stone boat by Pietro Bernini and probably his son Gian Lorenzo, commemorates a legendary flood of the Tiber and spills water from its bow. To the right of the steps, the small house where the poet John Keats died in 1821 is now the Keats-Shelley House, a museum of the English Romantic poets in Rome. Around them spreads the city's most elegant shopping district: Via Condotti runs straight from the piazza toward the Tiber, lined with luxury fashion houses, and the grid of streets between Via del Babuino and Via del Corso holds galleries, antique dealers and boutiques. For two centuries this was the heart of the Grand Tour, where artists' models waited on the steps and English travellers lodged in the surrounding streets. The steps were restored with funding from a fashion house in 2016, and in 2019 the city banned sitting on them to protect the travertine; municipal police issue fines, so climb, pause, photograph and move on. In spring the steps are traditionally decked with azaleas.

The best moments are early and late. At sunrise the steps are nearly empty and the pale travertine glows; at golden hour the view from the top, past the obelisk and down Via Condotti toward the dome of St Peter's on the horizon, is one of the classic Roman panoramas. Midday brings crowds, hawkers and the heat bouncing off the stone. Because sitting is not allowed, treat the steps as a route rather than a resting place: climb to Trinità dei Monti, look inside the church, then continue along the terrace of Viale Trinità dei Monti toward Villa Medici and the Pincio, where benches and shade await.

The neighbourhood is worth more than a photo stop. The Keats-Shelley House keeps the poet's final room and a library of Romantic literature. Babington's Tea Rooms, beside the steps, has been serving tea since the late nineteenth century. Via Margutta, a quiet lane of artists' studios a few minutes north, is where Gregory Peck's character lived in Roman Holiday — the film that made the steps famous for a gelato eaten on them, which is now forbidden. Window-shopping along Via Condotti costs nothing, and the Spagna stop on Metro A sits beside the piazza, making the area an easy hub.

Building a walk: start at Piazza del Popolo, wander down Via del Babuino past the Hotel de Russie, cross Piazza di Spagna, climb the steps, follow the terrace to the Pincio for the view over Piazza del Popolo, then drop into Villa Borghese for the gallery or the park. In the other direction, Trevi Fountain is about ten minutes south. Couples staying at the Hassler, which sits at the very top of the steps, get the view from their window. For families, the Metro stop and the open spaces of the Pincio make this an easy half-day, and the gardens give children room to run. In December the area is at its most festive, with lights strung along Via Condotti and the surrounding shopping streets, and the steps make a natural meeting point before an evening passeggiata.