Roman life revolves around its Piazzas. Your local Piazza is where you do your shopping, have a coffee, catch up with neighbors and friends, or have a drink and enjoy the best people-watching!  Piazzas are not only popular with tourists, but the locals as well. Piazzas have at least a couple of bars or restaurants, are aesthetically appealing and usually a fountain of some sort. Some you find shopping markets and even live entertainment. Piazza San Pietro doesn’t make the list, because in spite of its beauty, history and cultural importance, it doesn’t have the true spirit of a Roman Piazza. Piazza di Spagna, which is undeniably picturesque, but feels more like a tourist thoroughfare than a proper Piazza.

Here’s our list of our favorite Piazzas, in no particular order:

Arguably the most beautiful of all the Piazzas in Rome, Piazza Navona is particularly stunning at night. The stunning Baroque architecture and the theatrical splendour of the Fountain of the Four Rivers create the impression of a stage backdrop or a film set; it was used to particularly good effect in La Grande Bellezza. The restaurants, bars, markets and street performers prevent it from seeming like an open-air museum, and there’s always something going on.

There’s always an interesting cross-section of people hanging out on the steps of the fountain, from chain-smoking hipsters to elderly men taking a nap.  At lunchtime,  locals eat their panini and piadine by the fountain, next to tourists persusing their maps as they find their way to the Colosseum. Depending of the time of day, the Piazza can feel like a tranquil retreat, or the centre of Rome’s nightlife.

You could easily spend a day hanging around this Piazza, eating, drinking, people-watching and reflecting on the strange contrast between the beauty of the square and the horror of its history. Look up from the flowers to the solemn, hooded figure that watches over the square. Giordano Bruno, a friar and philosopher, was accused of heresy and burned to death here in 1600. The Piazza can get quite busy at night and is best experienced in the morning, when the market is open.

Piazza del Popolo rivals Piazza Navona for elegance and drama. Whichever way you look at it, entering from Via Del Corso, or admiring the piazza from the terrace of the Pincio, it is graceful and symmetricaly square. One side is framed by twin churches built in the 17th century, while another side leads towards the imposing Porta del Popolo.

It’s easy to get lost in the narrow, winding streets of Trastevere, but sooner or later you know you’ll find yourself in the heart of it all, at Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. Everyone ends up here eventually, sitting on the steps of the fountain, enjoying a gelato, watching the street musicians and people watching.

Last but not least, Piazza Mattei is hidden away in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto. Every piazza in Rome has a fountain, but the Fontana delle Tartarughe is a fountain with a difference. Four smiling naked boys throw turtles into the basin above, or catch them, depending on how you look at it.  The Jewish Ghetto is an area not to be missed!