Spanish Steps

The 135 travertine steps, completed in 1725 with French royal funds, sweep from the Piazza di Spagna up to the twin-towered church of Trinità dei Monti. They quickly became a magnet for artists, poets, and visitors on the Grand Tour. In the pink house at the foot of the steps, the English Romantic poet John Keats died of tuberculosis in February 1821, aged just 25, tended by his friend Joseph Severn; the building is now the Keats-Shelley Memorial House. At the base sits Bernini's 'Barcaccia' fountain, a sinking-boat design fed by the low-pressure Aqua Virgo. In spring the steps blaze with azaleas, a Roman ritual since the 1950s.