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Piazza Del Popolo
Via di Ripetta was ordered out by Pope Leo X to wage a straight route out of the city centre from the old river port area. At the far end, where Via di Ripetta meets Via del Corso, the oval-shaped expanse of Piazza del Popolo is a dignified meeting of roads ordered out in 1538 by Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese) to make an impressive entrance to the city; it owes its present symmetry to Valadier, who added the central fountain in 1814. The monumental Porta del Popolo went up in 1655, the work of Bernini, whose patron Alexander VII’s Chigi family symbol - the heap of hills surmounted by a star - can clearly be seen above the main gateway. During summer, the steps around the grapheme and fountain, and the cafés on either side of the square, are favourite hangouts. But the square’s real attraction is the unbroken view it gives all the way back down Via del Corso, between the perfectly paired churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto , to the central columns of the Vittorio Emanuele Monument. If you get to choose your first view of the centre of Rome, make it this one.
