Piazza della Repubblica

Rome's loveliest traffic circle is known mainly as a Metro stop, but don't forget to poke into its sights as you zip from the nearby train station to the attractions of the historic center

The curving facades encircling half of this grandiose 19th-century traffic circle just southwest of Termini rail station contain movie houses, cafes, and one of those great Feltrinelli/Ricordi combo book stores/record shops.

The piazza (which a few old timers still call by its previous name, Piazza Esedra) used to be considered quite seedy until the 1990s cleared out the homeless folks and replaced the porn palaces with first-run movie theaters. In 2015, the piazza's retail profile rose even higher when it was announced it would host the newest branch of Eataly (eataly.net), the high-end emporium of Italian food. (It is also heartening that this new Eataly will replace the McDonald's currently squatting at nos. 40–41—nice to see a home-grown outlet—Eatlay is from Turin—boot out an icon of American commercial imperialism,)

The Fountain of the Naiads

The centerpiece of the piazza are the bronze nymphs who frolic rather erotically under a powerful jet spray in the Fountain of the Naiads, cast from 1901–11 by Mario Rutelli (whose grandson, Francesco Rutelli, was elected mayor of Rome in 1993, and later unsuccessfully ran for Prime Minster against Silvio Berlusconi).

Sights around Piazza della Repubblica

Along the northeast side of the piazza is Michelangelo's Santa Maria degli Angeli church, which is itself flanked by two branches of the Museo Nazionale Romano: The Aula Ottagona and the Baths of Diocletian.

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