Page 137 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

PIAZZA DI SP A GNA  135

4 Via Condotti today, and the square stood
at the heart of the city’s main
Map 5 A2. @ 81, 116, 117, 119,
492, and many routes along via del hotel district. Some of the
Corso or stopping at Piazza S. Silvestro. travelers came in search of
q Spagna. See Stores and Markets knowledge and artistic
pp326–33. inspiration, but most were
more interested in gambling,
Named after the conduits that collecting ancient statues,
carried water to the Baths of and conducting love affairs
Agrippa near the Pantheon, with Italian women.
Via Condotti is now home to Not surprisingly, the wealthy
the most traditional of Rome’s travelers attracted hordes of
designer clothing boutiques. beggars, who were usually
Stores selling shoes and other supplied with tear-jerking
leather goods are also well letters by scribes who worked
represented. The street is very in the square.
popular for early evening strolls, The Fontana della Barcaccia
when elegant Italians mingle Antico Caffè Greco, more than 250 years old in the square is the least showy
with casually dressed tourists. of Rome’s Baroque fountains,
Laura Biagiotti and the meeting place for foreign artists. and it is often completely
Fendi sisters have stores on Writers such as Keats, screened from
the parallel Via Borgo gnona, Byron, and Goethe and view by people
while Valentino and Giorgio composers like Liszt, resting on its
Armani both have stores on Wagner, and Bizet all rim. It was
Via Condotti itself. Valentino has breakfasted and drank designed either
a second branch on Via Bocca here. So did Casanova, by the famous
di Leone, which crosses Via and mad King Ludwig Gian Lorenzo
Condotti just below Piazza di of Bavaria. Today, Bernini or by
Spagna, and Versace also has a Italians stand in the his father Pietro.
store here. Giorgio Armani has crowded lobby to sip Because the
a second location on nearby Via a quick espresso, and pressure from
del Babuino, among the discreet foreigners sit in a cozy Pope Urban VIII’s arms, with the aqueduct
art galleries, exclusive antiques back room whose the Barberini bees that feeds the
shops, and furnishing stores. walls are studded with fountain is
portraits of the café’s extremely low, there are no
illustrious customers. spectacular cascades or spurts
of water. Instead, Bernini
constructed a leaking boat –
6 Piazza di Spagna barcaccia means useless, old
boat – that lies half submerged
Map 5 A2. @ 116, 117, 119.
q Spagna. in a shallow pool.
The bees and suns that
Shaped like a crooked bow decorate the Fontana della
tie and surrounded by tall, Barcaccia are taken from the
shuttered houses painted in family coat of arms of Pope
muted shades of ocher, cream, Urban VIII Barberini, who
and russet, Piazza di Spagna commissioned the fountain.
(Spanish Square) is crowded all
day and (in summer) most of
the night. It is the most famous
Crowds strolling along the chic Via Condotti, square in Rome, and has long
lined with designer clothing stores been the haunt of foreign
visitors and expatriates.
In the 17th century, Spain’s
5 Antico Caffè Greco ambassador to the Holy See had
his headquarters on the square,
Via Condotti 86. Map 5 A2. Tel 06-67 and the area around it was
91 700. @ 81, 116, 117, 119, 492.
q Spagna. Open 9am–9pm daily. deemed to be Spanish territory.
Closed Jan 1, Aug 15. 7 Foreigners who unwittingly
trespassed were liable to be
This café was opened by a dragooned into the Spanish
Greek (hence greco) in 1760, army. In the 18th and 19th
and throughout the 18th centuries, Rome was almost as Fontana della Barcaccia at the foot
century it was a favorite popular with visitors as it is of the Spanish Steps

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