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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Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna

The national modern art museum covers 19th- and 20th-century works. Strongest in Italian art, although foreigners feature too.
Galleria Veneziani

A large gallery selling a wide range of high-quality antiques, from furnishings and old oil paintings to statuary, vases and various objets d’art . Definitely worth a browse.
Gianni Versace

The house of the late fashion designer never compromises the clothing’s flamboyant cuts and garish use of colour.
Gilda

Rome’s most central disco has remained popular for years, with a pizzeria in the evening and dance music cranking up at midnight. High cover charge on weekends, but always an A-list crowd.
Giorgio Armani

Stylishly cool service for one of Italy’s top names. Emporio Armani branch (Via del Babuino 140) sells the designer’s couture line at lower prices. The lowest-end line, Armani Jeans, is at Via del Babuino 70A.
Gucci

The Florentine saddle-maker turned his leather-working skills into one of Italy’s early fashion successes. The era of ostentatious interlocking “G’s” on everything is over, but the accessories are still top notch.
Il Brillo Parlante

Popular basement eatery packed with locals enjoying huge plates of salad and delicious pizzas.
Il Discount dell’Alta Moda

Stock house of mostly men’s and women’s clothing, plus accessories. Genuinely helpful staff. Discounts up to 50 per cent on Versace, Donna Karan, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and more.
Keats-Shelley Memorial

The pink-stuccoed apartment overlooking the Spanish Steps, where 25-year-old John Keats breathed his last, consumptive breath in 1821, has been turned into a modest little museum dedicated to the Romantic-era British poets who lived part of their lives in Rome (see John Keats). Main displays include documents, letters, copies of publications, and Keats’s death mask. Companion Joseph Severn cradled Keats’s head as he died; his resultant drawing of Keats on his Deathbed is also on exhibit.
La Barcaccia

Bernini’s father Pietro possibly helped train his son in making this tongue-in-cheek 1629 fountain of a sinking boat. The design ingeniously solved the low water pressure problem by having a boat sprouting leaks rather than jets and sprays.

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