ROME - Exploring some of TRIDENTE back streets

Townhouse row near Piazza di Spagna

Below the hill of Villa Borghese Park and as far as the Tiber River, from Piazza del Popolo till Piazza di Spagna, there is an interesting section of Rome. It is called 'Tridente' because three major streets

At Hôtel de Russie

form a trident out of Piazza del Popolo: Via Rippeta (parallel to the Tiber), Via del Corso (the most famous one), and Via del Babuino.

I took Via del Babuino because I wanted to explore this section on my way to Piazza di Spagna. It is not really far to walk the distance between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna. 

Going from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza di Spagna.

Tridente is a fashionable section of the Italian capital. There are some

Story of the hotel

fine examples of cosmopolitan Italian architecture on Via del Babuino, with stone façades and imposing wooden building doors. There is an inviting sidewalk café at the corner of the piazza and next to Chiesa di Santa Maria in Montesanto. A few meters away, the Palazzo on the left is a classy hotel called Hôtel de Russie. It has a French name because it used to be the residence of one of Napoleon's brother in Rome. On the other side of the street, a little further away, in a narrow street leading to Via del Corso, stands the Casa di Goethe. It is a museum within the house where Wolfgang von Goethe lived while he was in Italy.

A small private alley

Yet, on the left side when you leave Piazza del Popolo, just below the hill, there is a very picturesque alley running parallel to Via del Babuino. It is called Via Margutta. It is a quiet area, so unusual that it feels you are more in a provincial area than the capital. It is a green lane lined with mansions, art galleries, and antique shops. This is where Picasso met his wife Olga and where Federico Fellini lived until his death. 

Restaurant on Via Margutta

A view of Via Margutta

Palazzo Versace

Piazza di Spagna.

The Spanish Steps

Eventually, you must turn back into Via del Babuino before reaching the other picture-perfect Piazza di Spagna, one of Rome's highlights. 

At one end of the piazza, there is an imposing palazzo, home to Versace, one of the Italian designers. A porch leads to an open patio, where you may have a quick look at another fine example of Italian architecture. But of course, once you reach the Spanish Steps, you catch up with the daily hordes of tourists, who tend to linger in one of the capital's best known photogenic spots. A flowery 135-step staircase (1725) leads up to Chiesa Trinità dei Monti (16^thc.). The fountain of the sinking boat (Barcaccia), at the foot of the stairs, is the work of Pietro Bernini. 

Actually, Piazza di Spagna, got its name from the nearby Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, set in an austere, but imposing palazzo. 

In the 18^thc. this area had been nicknamed the English

The fountain

ghetto by the Italians. This is why the Babington's Tea Room was opened in 1893 by two English women, on the left-hand side of the Steps. From Charles Dickens to the romantic poet John Keats, who died of tuberculosis here in 1821. On the right-hand corner of the steps stands the Keats-Shelley House is now a small museum commemorating the lives of both British poets. Shelly drowned on the coast of Tuscany a year after Keats's death.

Caffè Greco

Right across the Barcaccia Fountain, Via del Condotti is Rome's fashion street showcasing the Italian designer brand shops like Prada, Bulgari, Giorgio Armani, or Salvatore Ferragamo. But this is also where you can find Caffè Greco (opened in 1760), which was once patronized by the literary elite like Baudelaire, Goethe, Wagner, Byron, Keats, Shelley and even famous personalities like Casanova. 

The Spanish Embassy to the Holy See

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Story of Trinita dei Monti

On the Piazza di Spagna

This is only a sample of what can be seen in Tridente, which is easily accessible by underground from Termini Rail station. Rome is one of these European cities that request to be discovered slowly on a pedestrian discovery. 

Christian Sorand