Description

The Spanish Steps, are a flight of irregular stairs and landings that lead up to the French church of Trinità dei Monti. The stairs take their name from Piazza di Spagna, the plaza at their base and one of Rome's most typical squares. The stairs have been a favorite haunt of tourists, where they can sit and enjoy a gelato in the summer or warm their hands around cones of hot roasted chestnuts in the winter. Here, visitors can tread the same stairs that writers Balzac and Byron climbed for inspiration in the 19th century. The boat-shaped fountain at the foot of the Spanish Steps is known as the Barcaccia and was created by Pietro Bernini, father of the great Baroque architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Via Condotti, leading southwest from Piazza di Spagna, is Rome's most fashionable shopping street, where the Caffè Greco is famous for the artists, writers, and musicians who have frequented it.