Piazza del Popolo

For centuries this was Rome's front door for anyone arriving from the north: here the journey of pilgrims and Grand Tour travellers ended. At the centre stands the Flaminian obelisk, brought from Heliopolis by Augustus in 10 BC and moved here in 1589. The present oval shape is Giuseppe Valadier's, from the early nineteenth century; on one side the twin churches, on the other the climb to the Pincio.

Did you know: The two churches flanking via del Corso look identical but are not: the plots had different widths, so to make them appear the same one has an oval dome and the other a circular one. From the Pincio terrace just above, you get one of the finest views over the city at sunset.

✦ The legend: Until 1826 the square was a place of public executions, and Romans came as though to a show: Charles Dickens left a chilling account of one. Popular tradition ties the name “popolo” to those executions, but the etymology is another and gentler one: from the Latin *populus*, the poplar, the trees that grew here.