Rome Guide
Rome
Tridente
The northern part of Rome's centre is sometimes known as Tridente on account of the trident shape of the roads leading down from the apex of Piazza del Popolo – Via di Ripetta, Via del Corso and Via del Babuino. The area east of Via del Corso, focusing on Piazza di Spagna was historically the artistic quarter of the city, for which eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Grand Tourists would make in search of the colourful, exotic city. Keats and Giorgio de Chirico are just two of those who lived on Piazza di Spagna; Goethe had lodgings on Via del Corso; and institutions like Caffè Greco and Babington's Tea Rooms were the meeting-places of the local expat community for close on a couple of centuries. Today these institutions have given ground to more latter-day traps for the tourist dollar: American Express and McDonald's have settled in, while Via dei Condotti and around is these days strictly international designer territory, with some of Rome's fanciest stores.