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Piazza Navona
This vast piazza provides a beautiful Baroque backdrop for the everyday goings-on of modern Roman life, and is filled from dawn until well after dusk with excited kids, grumpy old men, critical caricaturists, multilingual fortune tellers, pesky pickpockets, bothersome beggars and gelati-licking tourists.
The piazza started life as a stadium, built by Domitian in AD86, and hosted many of Rome's more savoury sports like jousting, javelin and racing up until the 15th century when it was paved over. It then became the city's main market for almost three centuries.
Navona's centrepiece is Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, completed in 1651 and depicting the Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio Plata rivers, which represented the then known four continents of the world. The obelisk above the fountain can be seen to the right of the photo. The Fontana del Moro at the southern end of the piazza was designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1576, although Bernini added the central figure of the Moor. The 19th century Fontana del Nettuno at the other end has a figure of Neptune fighting a sea monster, surrounded by sea nymphs but, unfortunately, was shrouded in scaffolding when I visited.
