Explore Rome

Piazza Navona is a long oval square that keeps the outline of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD. Its Baroque form dates from the 17th century: Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers stands in the centre, with a fountain at each end, and Borromini's church of Sant'Agnese in Agone faces it from the west side.

Piazza del Popolo is a large oval square just inside the Porta del Popolo, the northern gate in Rome's Aurelian Walls where the Via Flaminia entered the city. Giuseppe Valadier gave it its present form in 1811–1822; an Egyptian obelisk stands at the centre, and the twin churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto face it from the south.

St. Peter's Square is the plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, laid out by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1656–1667. Two curved colonnades, four columns deep, enclose an ancient Egyptian obelisk raised here in 1586 and two granite fountains; the Pope holds general audiences and blessings in the square.

The Bioparco di Roma is a 17-hectare zoological garden on part of the former Villa Borghese estate. It opened in 1911 as the city zoo, laid out by Carl Hagenbeck with ditches instead of bars, and keeps about 1,100 animals of more than 200 species, among them Asiatic lions, giraffes and chimpanzees.