PALAZZO FLORIDI

With its spectacular fountains, baroque palazzi and colourful cast of street artists, venders and tourists, Piazza Navona is central Rome’s elegant showcase square. Built on the 1st-century Stadio di Domiziano, it was paved over in the 15th century and for almost 300 years hosted the city's main market. Its grand centrepiece is Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, a flamboyant fountain featuring an Egyptian obelisk and muscular personifications of the Rivers Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata.

The Fontana del Moro at the southern end of the square was designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1576. Bernini added the Moor holding a dolphin in the mid-17th century, but the surrounding Tritons are 19th-century copies. At the northern end of the Piazza, the 19th-century Fontana del Nettuno depicts Neptune fighting with a sea monster, surrounded by sea nymphs.

The Piazza's largest building is the Palazzo Pamphilj, built for Pope Innocent X between 1644 and 1650, and now home to the Brazilian embassy.