Piazza Venezia
Rome converges on Piazza Venezia the way water finds a drain. Buses from every quarter of the city empty here, and the square functions less as a destination than as the city's great hinge — the point where the ancient south, the baroque north and the unified-Italy monument all press against each other at once.
The white marble bulk of the Vittoriano dominates everything, its tiered colonnades earning the nicknames Romans gave it long ago: the typewriter, the wedding cake. Stand with your back to it and you face Palazzo Venezia, a 15th-century palace that has housed a cardinal, an embassy and a dictator in roughly that order.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who know the square well tend to pause at the corner between Palazzo Venezia and the Palazzetto to find Madama Lucrezia — a ancient bust wedged into the wall, one of Rome's so-called talking statues, where anonymous notes of protest were once pinned. It's easy to miss, and worth the ten seconds it takes to look.
The story behind Piazza Venezia
The square takes its name from Palazzo Venezia, built between 1455 and 1468 for the Venetian cardinal Pietro Barbo — who became Pope Paul II in 1464 — and designed by Francesco del Borgo. In 1564 the palace passed partly to the Republic of Venice as its Roman embassy. Via del Corso, which feeds into the square from the north, owes its name to the Corsa dei Barberi, a riderless horse race that once finished here after charging the full length of the street from Piazza del Popolo.
The square's current shape was carved out at the turn of the 20th century to make room for the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, begun by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885 and completed in 1911 by Koch, Manfredi and Piacentini. In 1921 the crypt beneath it received the Unknown Soldier. From 1929 to 1943, Mussolini used the palace balcony for his public addresses.
Good to know
No metro stop serves the square directly; the nearest is Colosseo on line B, about 12 minutes on foot along Via dei Fori Imperiali. Dozens of bus lines stop here. The Vittoriano terrace costs €7 and runs until 18:30 on weekdays, 19:30 on weekends — the rooftop view over the Forum repays the ticket.
The square is exposed and shadeless, so summer middays — July and August especially — can be punishing. Spring and October offer the most comfortable conditions for lingering; winter is mild by northern European standards but the wind funnels through the surrounding streets.
Where is Piazza Venezia?
Location
- In Rome
- 41.8958, 12.4823
- Open in Google Maps
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