DK Travel : Rome : The Spanish Steps and Villa Borghese

Here is rome at its most orderly and elegant, carefully laid out under 16th-century papal urban planning schemes. Baroque popes such as Leo X and Sixtus V redeveloped the all but abandoned area around the Corso, the extension of the ancient Via Flaminia from northern Italy, for their rapidly growing city. Romans now call it the Tridente after the trident of streets - Corso, Ripetta and Babuino - diverging from Piazza del Popolo. It’s an area stamped by a love of theatricality: the beautifully symmetrical Piazza del Popolo; long vistas that stretch down arrow-straight roads; the carefully landscaped Pincio gardens and the lush expanse of Villa Borghese; the stage-set backdrop of the Spanish Steps; the oversized and overwrought Trevi Fountain. It’s also Rome’s most stylishly self-conscious district, famous for its boutiques hawking frighteningly expensive high fashion. Artists have long made their home along Via Margutta, as numerous galleries and antiques shops attest, and Rome’s most elegant passeggiata (the traditional early evening see-and-be-seen stroll) unfolds down the length of Via del Corso.

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Fausto Santini

Gorgeous, classically styled shoes at stratospheric prices.
Fendi

Five sisters founded this Roman fashion empire from their parents’s workshop and reign over Italy’s rage for furs.
Ferragamo

The shoemaker to the stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1950s hasn’t lost its touch, but it now mass-produces styles rather than creating unique works.
Fiaschetteria Beltramme (da Cesaretto)

Regulars and tourists are fitted into communal tables at this ultra-traditional trattoria just down the block from the Spanish Steps.
Firmastock

Small, eclectic collection of designer men’s and women’s suits, dresses, coats and shoes at up to 50–70 per cent off the usual retail prices.
Franco Maria Ricci

Small but very prestigious publisher, based in Milan, crafting the classiest coffee table art books on the market.
Galleria Antiquaria

A small selection of artworks, mostly sculpture, paintings and objets d’art.
Galleria Borghese

One of Europe’s greatest small museums, worth seeing for its setting alone, is home to Rome’s best collection of early Bernini sculptures.
Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna

The museum covers Italian art from the late 1800s to mid-1900s.
Galleria dei Leoni

Regularly changing exhibitions of contemporary paintings, watercolours and prints are held here.

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Restaurant price categories

For a three-course meal for one with half a bottle of wine (or equivalent meal), taxes and extra charges.
- under €30
- €30-40
- €40-50
- €50-60
- over €60