The Piazza del Popolo and the adjacent Villa Borghese is one of the most famous places, especially for foreigners, in Rome.  The via Flaminia, an important Roman road and also the route taken by pilgrims coming to Rome from northern Europe in the Middle Ages, enters the city through the Porta del Popolo.  The piazza has the imposing Obelisk of Pharaoh Ramses II, purloined by Augustus in the first century B.C. (the historical sketches below would indicate it has been a landmark there since the sixteenth century), a central fountain and two more at the western and eastern ends with some cheesily imposing 19th century sculptures, and a classy cafe on each side, the Rosati  on the west, and the Canova on the east.  The Caffé Rosati is one of the likelier places to spot an Italian film star or director. The piazza looks much the same as it did three hundred years ago.

Your first walk could start going up to the Monte Pincio which can be easily reached from Piazza del Popolo. In the 4 century, the Pinci family left their name to this hill covered by a garden. The garden was then redesigned by Giuseppe Valadier, during the Napoleonic occupation in the 19 century. Some years later the statues of Italian patriots were added by Giuseppe Mazzini. From the Piazzale Napoleone I there is a magnificent view particularly at the sunset. Opposite are the buildings of the Vatican grouped round the dome of S. Peter’s.  The best time to visit the gardens is at sunset, when the view of St. Peter's and the Tiber River make a picture perfect panorama.

Steps lead from the Piazza del Popolo to the Pincio eastward

The piazza has three churches : the two Baroque churches at the south end are virtual mirror images of each other, Santa Maria di Montesanto (on the left) and Santa Maria di Miracoli (on the right); the least imposing of the three, at least from the exterior,  is Santa Maria del Popolo, just inside Porta del Popolo. This church is not, by Roman standards, particularly old, or particularly large, or particularly famous, but it holds some very impressive art. The first right after the entrance is the della Rovere chapel, with an Adoration by Pinturicchio. Pinturicchio also frescoed the next chapel, the Cappella Agostino, and the ceiling of the choir. The Chigi Chapel, second on the left, was started by Raphael for the Sienese banker Agosto Chigi, then finished by Vasari according to Raphael's designs. The Cerasi Chapel, directly left of the main altar, has two Caravaggio paintings.

 Here are the photo of the masterpiece  Crucifixion of Saint Peter and The conversion on the way to Damascus by Caravaggio, Assumption of the Virgin Mary, by Annibale Carracci and Daneil and the lion by Bernini all situated in the Santa Maria del Popolo church.

 Dan Brown set here an episode of his novel Angels and Demons, and Thom Gunn wrote a poem about Caravaggio's Conversion, which he named after the church.

An Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II from Heliopolis stands in the centre of the Piazza. The obelisk, known as the obelisco Flaminio, is the second oldest and one of the tallest in Rome (some 24 m high, or 36 m including its). The obelisk was brought to Rome in by order of Augustus and originally set up in the Circus Maximus. It was re-erected here in the Piazza by the architect-engineer Domenico Fontana in 1589 as part of the urban plan of Sixtus V. The Piazza also formerly contained a central fountain, which was moved to the Piazza Nicosia in 1818, when fountains in the form of Egyptian-style lions were added around the base of the obelisk.

Looking from the north, three streets branch out from the Piazza, forming the so-called Trident the Via del Corso in the centre, the Via del Babuino on the left (opened in 1525 as the Via Paolina) and the Via di Ripetta (opened by Leo X in 1518 as the Via Leonina) on the right. Twin churches (the chiese gemelle) of Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1681) and Santa Maria in Montesanto (1679), begun by Carlo Rainaldiand completed by Bernini and Carlo Fontana, define the junctions of the roads. Close scrutiny of the twin churches reveals that they are not mere copies of one another, as they would have been in a Neoclassical project, but varying their details, offering variety within their symmetrical balance in Baroque fashion.
The central Via del Corso (the most central and  famous street of Rome)  follows the course of the ancient Roman Via Flaminia, coming from the Capitol and the forum. The Via Flaminia became known as the Via Lata in the Middle Ages, before becoming today's Via del Corso and leads to the Piazza Venezia. The Via di Ripetta leads past the Mausoleum of Augustus to the Tiber, where the Porto di Ripetta was located until the late 19th century. Today, the road crosses the Tibur by bridge, and continues to the Vatican City. The Via del Babuino, linking to Piazza di Spagna, takes its name from a grotesque sculpture of Silenus, that gained the popular name of "the Baboon".

 At weekends, Romans swarm to this triangular grid of streets to browse in antique shops or go shopping Armani, Benetton, Bulgari and many others.