Walk from the Boutique Hotel Trevi, Hotel Genio, Hotel Sistina or Hotel Eliseo, to this piazza, which like so many in Rome, is overflowing with cafés and bars, allowing you to sit and admire the sumptuous sculptures or numerous artisans. Daily plying their trade here, some have immortalized the surrounding apartments and the piazza itself, on canvas. It is a blend of the new and the old, as modern billboards hang on century-old apartments. Live performers completely covered in silver or mummified in gold lamé, stand frozen for hours, in front of Baroque architectural jewels. The piazza itself is truly a gem, but it is ‘the diamond in the centre’ which has brought acclamation to this uncharacteristically long ’square’.
The Fountain of the Four Rivers, the pièce de résistance of Bernini erected in 1651, is an impressive fusion of rock and water making the fountain not only a wonderment, as it has been for centuries, but also functional for the use of the public, centuries ago when home plumbing was absent. The fountain pays homage to the four rivers of the four continents then discovered by geographers of the time: the Nile, the Ganges, the Danube and the Rio de la Plata.
If your visit is before dinner and assuming that you have not drunk more than your fair share of the abundant Italian wine, train your eyes on the river gods with accompanying flora and fauna. Can you guess which river is being depicted? The other two fountains in the piazza, one to the north - the Fountain of Neptune and one to the south - the Fountain of the Moor also by Bernini, are eternally overlooked by the church Sant’Agnes in Agone. Completed in 1657, the facades were constructed by one of the fiercest of Bernini’s rivals, Borromini, and is touted as one of his more restrained creations, nevertheless heavily embellished in the typical Baroque style. Why not take a quick peek inside the church, to observe the beautiful dome from the inside or the main altar? Out of respect for the sobriety of the internal atmosphere, please don appropriate attire.
Piazza Navona is highly recommended as the starting point or end of a truly splended evening in the Eternal City.
1 day, First day