Matt C.
Yelp
Piazza Navona was an extremely pleasant surprise, and a nice "palette cleanser" between the "big boy attractions" in the immediate area. (Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.)
Working off of a walking map I had, I more or less stumbled upon Piazza Navona, while traipsing about, what I called, the "downtown area" of Rome. I had heard about Piazza Navona, but it wasn't on our list of "must see's," although I would suggest you put it on yours. First, if you like statues and fountains, Trevi Fountain is king, but that's just ONE statue. Piazza Navona has THREE of them shits, and literally 1/20th of the crowd. In a rare occurrence for this area, you won't even know what to do with all the space available to you! Piazza Navona is just a city block of rectangular open space, with three beautiful fountains spread out in the middle. While there, we were able to kind of "reset" and take a second to figure things out and plan our next move, while not worrying about being in anyones way or having to be hyper vigilant about crowds or pickpockets. And THEN, like when the Grinch realized the true meaning of Christmas, you start to realize that you're in a REALLY dope area! The statues/fountains are amazing, and I even started to look up Piazza Navona facts while I was there. (Did you know they used to flood the plaza and let people swim in the square?! How is that even POSSIBLE?!) There are even shops and restaurants outlining the plaza if you want to eat or buy a souvenir. Although, the only less than pleasant aspect of Piazza Navona WAS when we went to buy a towel at the touristy store, because THREE, (and I mean ALL THREE of them!) workers followed within literal INCHES of me, every single step I took in the store. I guess they were worried about me stealing, but it was insane how closely they were playing me. The Misses and I made a game of it and kept splitting up, and walking fast to other parts of the store just to mess with them. We laughed it off, but it WAS annoying. We wound up paying WAY too much for a "Rome" towel, but only because it was approximately one BILLION degrees, and we wanted something that we could dip in the fountain and keep wet to keep us cool.
While you shouldn't go to Rome FOR Piazza Navona, I think you'd be a fool if you were in the area and didn't stop by. Seriously, it was WAY better than the Vatican. Ugh, that place.