[Europe] Walking Tour in Rome, From Piazza Navona to Spanish Steps

Rome, not always about a historical building, which always need an extra fee to entry. There are another places that also great to be visited, such as Piazza. In Italy, Piazza means a square. Since it’s an open  air place, you can visit it for free, and join with the crowd here. At the Piazza, you’ll see the landmark (which also popular among tourist), watch the street performance, or maybe you can just sitting down at the cafe, and enjoy the ambience. In Rome, there are several Piazza that are very famous, and you can’t missed it such as Piazza Venezia, Piazza Navona, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna. Well, at this post, i’ll write about my experience while had a walking tour from Vatican to Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps).

Piazza del Popolo. Source : www.rollingrome.com

It was the second day for us in Rome. We started our day by visiting Vatican in morning. From Vatican, we walked out through Via della Conciliazione and accross the iconic bridge in Rome, Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II. Like Pont Alexander III in Paris and other European bridge, there are always a beautiful statue as a decoration on it. Beside that, this bridge become popular because you can see the majestic Castel Sant’Angelo from here. This bridge is a good spot for take pictures.

Castel Sant'Angelo seen from Ponte Vittorio Emanuele

After crossing this bridge, we turned to the small alley, Via dei Coronari. At this street we stopped for a lunch at the famous restaurant for pasta, Il Pastaio di Roma. We just had a quick lunch here because we only had a little bit time left, and we needed to move fast so we could visit every destination that we want. It’s only about 10 minutes walking through Via dei Coronari, finally we arrived at our first destination, Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is very popular in Rome. I recognized this place from the pictures on Google that always shown up everytime i searched about Rome. The thing that makes this place become special is the fountain. Yeah, Rome has many fountains and they are very interesting to be visited by tourists. Beside the fountain, there are also many street artist in this piazza, and they sell a beautiful painting of Rome. Actually, if you visit this place at the good weather, sitting at the cafe or bar along this piazza is a great things to do. However i visited this place in summer, and the heat reached 40 degrees Celcius. We couldn't "stand" at this place for a long time, so we kept walking and continue our tour.

Fiumi Fountain

The next place that we're going to see is Pantheon. Pantheon is also a famous landmark in Rome. People will recognize this iconic temple by looking at the dome on the top of the building. It’s located not far from Piazza Navona, only about 500m. Actually Pantheon is a nice place to be visited. But (again), because of the crazy weather, we couldn't enjoy it too much. Although there are many great coffee shops around this area such as Sant'Eustachio Il Caffe. FYI, Rome also known for their coffee. It was so tasty and you should try it when in Rome.

Pantheon

Anyway, while we're exploring this area, we found a toy store named Bartolucci. It's the first time for me to saw this kind of toy store. It was so unique. At this toy store, they are selling everything about Pinnochio. You must be know about Pinnochio, right? A wooden toy who can be alive, and when he's telling lies, his nose will get longer. It's one of my favorite character when i was a kid, and i'm so glad to found this store.

 It was 3pm and the temperature was getting higher. It was the hottest time of the day so we decided to looking for an indoor place. At the moment, we found Galleria Alberto Sordi, a shopping mall which located at Via del Corso, and decided to "hide" here from Mr. Sun for a while. Via del Corso is one of the best shopping street in Rome. This street located between 2 popular tourist spots, Piazza Venezia and Piazza del Popolo. Walking along this street you'll find many shopping stores from the high-end brand such as Pandora, Louis Vuitton, until the mid-range brand such as ZARA, Foot Locker, Disney Store, Kiko Milano, and many more. (Also read : Cheap Shopping Guide in Europe)

While we’re continuing our tour to the last destination, the Spanish Steps, we found a street which gonna change our walking tour into shopping tour. It’s Via dei Condotti. How could we not do it??? There are many luxurious shopping store along this street such as Fendi, Hermes, Salvatore Ferragamo, and other brand that i always adore. Even though we’ve shopping a lot in Paris and Milan, but still.. Everytime i saw these kind of stores, it almost impossible for me to just passed it.

Baymax doll from Disney Store in Rome

Finally, the sun was started to going down. The sky was still bright but the weather wasn’t as hot as before. After bought a little bit stuff, we’re going to our last destination which just located at the end of Via dei Condotti. It’s Piazza di Spagna. Piazza di Spagna is the most crowded piazza in Rome. This place always full of tourist, and many street artists and street performances. The thing that makes this Piazza popular is the Spanish Steps. This iconic stairways always be an interesting place for  a photostop in Rome.

The Spanish Steps

We didn’t enjoy this place for a long time. We’re so exhausted at that time after visiting Vatican in the morning, and do the walking tour at the hot and sunny day. Well, we’re just strolling around this area for a while, had a little bit window shopping (again!), and after that we went back to hotel for packing and take a rest earlier before we had another long flight back to Jakarta.

After all, i would say Rome is really fun, and it’s great to have a walking tour in Rome. Since most of tourist attractions in Rome are located close to each other, you can visit them only by walking. But just a little advice from me, i think it would be better to not visit Rome in summer. Because summer in Rome is extremely hot, and it won’t be comfortable to walk outdoor at this weather..