The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna) is a set of stairs in Rome, ramping a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, with the church under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, Trinità dei Monti, above.

The square in an 18th century etching by Giuseppe Vasi, seen from south. The street on the left is Via del Babuino, leading to Piazza del Popolo.

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The square in an 18th century etching by Giuseppe Vasi, seen from south. The street on the left is Via del Babuino, leading to Piazza del Popolo.

The monumental stairway, of 138 steps, was built with French diplomat Stefano Gueffier’s funds (20,000 scudi) in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish embassy to the Holy See, today still located in the piazza below, with the Trinità dei Monti church above.

The Spanish Steps were designed by Francesco De Sanctis after generations of heated discussion over how the steep slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanized. The solution is a gigantic inflation of some conventions of terraced garden stairs.

During Christmas time a 19th-century crib is assembled in the first landing of the staircase. During May, half of the monument is covered by pots of azaleas. In modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market, a favorite place for eating lunch (now officially frowned upon and rewarded with fines) or picking up a gigolo. The apartment that was the setting for The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961) is halfway up on the right. Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged (1998) is also set in a house next to the steps.

The Spanish Steps have been restored several times, most recently in 1995.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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