In the surrounding streets

Via dei Baullari - leading off the northern end of the Campo

To the left, this street leads to the Piazza Farnese dominated by the Palazzo Farnese, now the French Embassy and perhaps the most impressive of all Palazzo in Rome. Half way there you will find the Hosteria Farnese, a wonderful restaurant run by Luca and his family. A MUST VISIT!

I have a separate page on the Piazza Farnese.

To the right, the Via dei Baullari links to the busy Corso Vittorio Emanuele II.  Along here are a few gelato and food shops, but almost at the end is the Fornaio which boasts “The Big Sausage”, truly a sight not to be missed.

At the end of the street on the left is the Museo Barracco, a medieval house that was cut in half by the construction of the Corso. Once the private collection by a senator who in the 1800's would buy anything “ancient roman”, this is now an interesting museum of ancient Egyptian and Roman artifacts. Well worth a quick visit.

Via Giubbonari

To the south of the Campo, to the right of the cinema, the Via dei Giubbonari runs through to the Via Arenula, one of the main roads linking the old city and Trastevere across the river. Pause at the start of the via Giubbonari and experience the delights of the Ruggeri Deli, perhaps the finest and most famous in Rome.

Equally, pause at the other end of the Via Giubbonari and sample the delights of the Roscioli Deli, a fabulous shop and restaurant full of cheese, meats, wine and everything in between.

The Roscioli Bar is just next door and its sister, the Roscioli Forno (great take-away bakery and pizza) is just along the small Via dei Chiavari opposite.

All along the Via Giubbonari are a mixed assortment of clothes shops, cheap and expensive, fashionable and not. All well worth a snoop. About half way is the small piazza Largo dei Librari, notable for two things. First, the small 11th.C. but much restored Church of Santa Barbara, the 17th.C. home of the Guild of Librarians, built into the ruins of the Theatre of Pompey, is so small as to be not even listed as a church by the local diocese and dependent on the Church of San Carlo ai Catinari at the end of the Via Giubbonari. It does have a beautiful organ c1600. Second, in the piazza is one of the few places in Rome you can buy authentic Venetian baccala.

Via dell'Arco del Monte

Almost opposite the Largo dei Librari, the Via dell'Arco del Monte (look for the arch above) runs down to the river, connecting with the Ponte Sisto bridge, a small pedestrian only bridge across to Trastevere. (There is also a reasonable supermarket towards the end and a fabulous Sicilian pasticeria about a quarter of the way along. You MUST try the 'Nipples of Venus', though it is probably better if you ask for them as Capezzoli di Venere.) At the start of the via is the Piazza Monte di Pieta or Pawnshop, and it was here, in the building with the clocktower with a beautiful clock tower and face by Borromini, that pawnshops were established by the church in the 1500's, lending money without interest to poor people on a pledge.

Vicolo dei Venti

Running parallel to the Via Giubbonari and two blocks towards the river, is the Vicolo dei Venti, where at No. 13 in the Piazza Capo di Ferro you will find the Spada Gallery in the Palazzo Spada. The palace, with its facade and courtyard of sculptures crowded into niches with fruit and flower swags, grotesques and symbolic vignettes, was completed in 1540 and contains an interesting gallery of sculpture and paintings.

The standout however, is the Borromini Perspective, a masterpiece of forced perspective optical illusion in which diminishing rows of columns and a rising floor create the visual illusion of a gallery 37 metres long (it is only 8 metres) with a life-size sculpture at the end. The sculpture is actually only 60 cm high. You can see the perspective from the courtyard, just walk through the main doors and look like you are heading to the gallery entrance, though if you would like to see the perspective up close, guides will take you inside (for a small fee, of course).

The Largo di Torre Argentina

The remains of the east side of the quadriporticus and three of four temples from an earlier period associated with the Theatre of Pompey (see link above) can be seen in the Largo di Torre Argentina. The fourth temple remains largely covered by the modern streets. This archaeological site was excavated by order of Mussolini in the 1920's and 1930's after building works exposed the ruins. Today, the Largo is a cat sanctuary (with, unfortunately, the associated smell) surrounded by busy traffic and is in a sad state of semi-restoration.

The garden complex was a curia for political meetings.  The senate would often use this building, along with a number of temples and halls that satisfied the requirements for their formal meetings. This is infamous as the place of Julius Caesar's murder by the ‘Liberatores’ of the Roman Senate and elite.

Incidentally, there is a law in Rome that allows cats to live without disruption in the place where they were born…. hence the number of cats inhabiting ruins.

The Largo Argentina is a good spot for finding a Taxi, as there is a large Taxi Rank at the northern (Corso V. Emanuele II) end.  At the southern end you can get a tram to Trastevere and points beyond.

The imposing Theatre Argentina (1732) on the west side of the Largo still hosts live performances and is best known as the venue where Rossini premiered "The Barber of Seville" on 20 February 1816.  Apparently the opening night was full of both the Roman elite and theatre critics who, spurred on by Rossini's rival Paisiello and his followers, hissed and jeered throughout the performance.

The reviews the next day were less than flattering and the whole production seemed doomed.  Undaunted, for the following night's performance Rossini rounded up as many friends and supporters as he could, including passers-by, who were encouraged to shout support.  Word of the wonderful opera soon spread and the rest is history.

Rome's oldest hotels:

The 4* Hotel Lunetta on Piazza del Paradiso (at the end of Via del Biscione) went through a 3 year restoration/renovation from 2008-2011 and on reopening revealed the walls from the lower level of the Theatre of Pompey, the first stone built theatre of Imperial Rome..

The engineering is amazing. The Superintendent of Archeology in Rome would not allow any structure to attach to the ancient walls and so the Hotel Lunetta suspended a ceiling over the theatre walls and attached it to the upper levels of the hotel. The Lunetta is the second oldest hotel in Rome and goes back to 1368 when it was the Albergo della Roma. The beautiful restoration/renovation includes a beautiful rooftop bar overlooking the city and the Piazza Paradiso.

The oldest hotel in Rome is the 2* Albergo del Sole al Biscone which follows the curve of the theatre seating around the Via del Biscone.