The environs

Having crossed the internal courtyard of the Borghese Palace, after the custodian’s office, you will find yourself in via della fontanella di Borghese, which together with the streets now known as Via del Clementino and Via Condotti, forms part of the ancient “Via Trinitatis” opened by Paul III in 1544 and so-called because it led to Trinità dei Monti. In the second part of the seventeenth century the street was also called the “Street that leads to Borghese”. On the left, you can see the magnificent piazza di Spagna which together with Trinità dei Monti is one of the most famous squares in Rome. In 1953 the movie “Roman Holiday”, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, was filmed in front of the eighteenth-century stairway. Then, by taking Via di Ripetta close by, you reach piazza del Popolo, the most magnificent entrance to the heart of Rome. The majestic gate, through which you reach this “inner sanctum”, is the ancient Porta Flaminia of the Aurelian Walls. In the centre of the square is the first obelisk to be brought to Rome, at the time of Augustus (10 B.C.), to celebrate the conquest of Egypt.