Fodor's Rome 2026 by Fodor's Travel Guides

Author:Fodor's Travel Guides [Fodor’s Travel Guides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fodor's Travel
Published: 2025-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

The piazza was transformed at the turn of the 20th century when much older ruins were destroyed to make way for a modern capital city (and a massive monument to unified Italy’s first king). The female bust near the church of San Marco in the southwest corner of the piazza is a fragment of a statue of Isis, now known to the Romans as Madama Lucrezia. It is one of the city’s “talking statues” on which anonymous poets hung verses pungent with political satire.

The Via Flaminia remains a vital artery. The part leading from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo is now known as Via del Corso, after the horse races (corse) that were run here during the wild Roman carnival celebrations of the 17th and 18th centuries. It also happens to be one of Rome’s busiest shopping streets. EPiazza Venezia, Trevi mCavour, Colosseo.

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CHURCH | Rome’s second Jesuit church, this 17th-century landmark set on a Rococo piazza harbors some of the city’s most magnificent trompe l’oeils. To get the full effect of the illusionistic ceiling by priest-artist Andrea Pozzo, stand on the small yellow disk set into the floor of the nave. The heavenly vision that seems to extend upward almost indefinitely represents the Allegory of the Missionary Work of the Jesuits. It’s part of Pozzo’s cycle of works in this church exalting the early history of the Jesuit order, whose founder was the reformer Ignatius of Loyola. The saint soars heavenward, supported by a cast of thousands, creating a jaw-dropping effect that was fully intended to rival that of the glorious ceiling by Baciccia in the nearby mother church of Il Gesù. Be sure to have coins handy for the machine that switches on the lights so you can marvel at the false dome, which is actually a flat canvas—a trompe l’oeil trick Pozzo used when the architectural budget drained dry.

Rome’s Fountains s

Anyone who has thrown a coin backward over their shoulder into the Fontana di Trevi to ensure a return to Rome appreciates the magic of the city’s fountains. From the magnificence of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Navona to the graceful caprice of the Fontana delle Tartarughe in the Jewish Ghetto, the water-spouting sculptures seem as essential to their piazzas as the cobblestones and ocher buildings that surround them.

Rome’s original fountains date back to ancient times, when they were part of the city’s remarkable aqueduct system. But from AD 537 to 1562, the waterworks were in disrepair, and the fountains lay dry and crumbling. Romans were left to draw their water from the Tiber and from wells.

During the Renaissance, the popes brought running water back to the city as a means of currying political favor. To mark the restoration of the Virgin Aqueduct, architect Giacomo della Porta designed 18 unassuming, functional fountains. Each consisted of a large basin with two or three levels of smaller basins in the center, which were built and placed throughout the city at points along the water line.

Although nearly all of della Porta’s fountains remain, their spare Renaissance design is virtually unrecognizable.

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