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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Abruzzi

The cuisine here hails from the owners’s home in the nearby Abruzzi mountains, as the name suggests.
Al 34

Excellently priced menus featuring inventive Italian cooking.
Alberto di Castro

Etching, lithographs and other prints mostly from the 1660s to the 1920s are on sale in this lovely shop.
An Afternoon Roman Passeggiata

Begin in Piazza SS Apostoli to see its namesake church (see Santissimi Apostoli) and the 2nd-century AD relief of an Imperial eagle against the portico’s right wall. Then continue straight across Via dell’Umilità and through the elaborate iron, glass, and frescoed 1880s pedestrian passage. Turn right on Via di Muratte to the Trevi Fountain . Your three coins tossed over your shoulder should ensure a return trip. Leave the square on Via di Lavoratore and turn left on Via di Panetteria for some of Rome’s best gelato at San Crispino .
Turn right up Via del Tritone and left on Via Francesco Crispi for the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna to enjoy a rare glimpse in Rome of contemporary art . Walk down Via Capo le Case and right on Via Due Macelli into Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps (see The Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna). Spend as long as you like window-shopping along the grid of streets west of the piazza, but try to finish up by 5pm so you can work your way north, weaving between Via del Babuino and Via Margutta to see the art and antiques shops), to Piazza del Popolo.
Pause for a cappuccino at Caffè Canova , then cross to Santa Maria del Popolo , with its works by Caravaggio, Raphael and Bernini. Try to get to Santa Maria dei Miracoli and in Montesanto around 7pm to hear the Gregorian chant, before heading off for a special dinner at Dal Bolognese .
Antico Caffè Greco

Rome’s premier literary café since 1760, best known for its popularity with the 19th-century English Romantic poets.
Babington’s Tea Rooms

Good for a very pricey spot of tea and other daintily British edibles. Opened in 1893 by a Derbyshire lady, it was the ex-pat hub of the later Grand Tour era.
Benucci

Heavy duty art and antiques of the type more usually found in museums – 15th-century Roman and Florentine Virgin and Childs, works by artists such as Luca Giordano or Fra’ Bartolomeo – plus beautiful furnishings inlaid in mother-of-pearl and hardwoods.
Birreria Peroni

Beer hall with excellent, cheap food sponsored by Italy’s premier brewery – try their “Blue Ribbon” Nastro Azzurro label.
Birreria Viennese

A little bit of Bavaria right near the Spanish Steps, complete with wood benches, pretzels and litre-sized mugs of beer.
Buccone

Historic wine shop with a vast selection and excellent prices. Speciality Italian foods are on sale as well.

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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