Rome's grandest shopping avenue, the President's palace on the hill, and the piazzas, fountains and gardens at the head of the Tridente.
Last updated August 23, 2026
In a nutshell: this page strings together the backbone of the Tridente: the Quirinale palace, home of the President and open by guided tour, the great shopping avenue of Via del Corso with its side streets, and the piazzas and gardens at the head of the fan, from Piazza del Popolo to the Pincio belvedere. The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain are a short walk away, and the district overview holds the whole picture.
The hill is properly called Quirinale Hill and the building Palazzo del Quirinale, yet for most Italians 'the Quirinale' simply means the President's official home, a genuine nerve centre of national politics and a site full of remarkable history. With its vast halls and grounds it ranks as the world's second-biggest presidential residence, behind only the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
Tip: Arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled time with your passport or ID, which is checked on entry. Visitors use the secondary entrance on Via del Quirinale, not the main one on the piazza.
A history of power: the palace began life as a summer retreat for the popes, perched above the rest of Rome to escape the heat and the odours of the lower city. In 1870, after some friction, its keys were delivered to the House of Savoy, freshly installed as the royal family of a united Italy. The monarchy fell in 1946 and the Quirinale was handed over to the President of the young Republic.
The institutional halls: several of the palace's rooms appear constantly on Italian television, as the nation's political life unfolds inside them. Foreign delegations are received in the Courtyard of Honour; prize-giving ceremonies normally fill the Great Hall of the Cuirassiers; and the Great Hall of Banquets is the stage for both the swearing-in of new governments and, true to its name, state dinners. One further room merits your attention, even though it is not an institutional hall: the Pauline Chapel, named for Pope Paul V, who commissioned it. For all its different decoration, the chapel is a structural twin of the Vatican's far more celebrated Sistine Chapel.
The gardens: among the palace's many treasures are its magnificent gardens, nearly 10 acres laid out partly in the Italian manner and partly in the English manner. Popes, kings, presidents, poets and champion athletes have strolled these grounds over the centuries. Free roaming is not permitted, yet the stretches covered by the tour suffice to appreciate this pocket of tranquillity at the heart of a frantic city.
Anyone home? The Torrino, the little tower that looms over the inner courtyard, is one of the palace's most distinctive features. No fewer than two flags are always aloft above it: the Italian flag, with its bands of green, white and red, and the European flag, with its ring of gold stars. A third standard, the President's personal banner, is raised only when the head of state is in residence.
The stables: the palace's former stables, the Scuderie del Quirinale, were restored and now stage exhibitions of every stripe, usually the kind that imports major foreign works; Picasso, Raphael and Matisse have all been honoured with recent shows. Part of the complex preserves a fleet of over 100 carriages that served the Savoys while they reigned as Kings of Italy.
One of the great open spaces of Rome, Piazza del Popolo is also the point where the Tridente gets its name: the three streets that leave it, Via del Babuino, Via Ripetta and most importantly Via del Corso, spread out like the prongs of a trident. Ringed by churches, fountains and cafes, the square is a concentrated taste of the city, and the eye never rests. Give the two fountains at opposite ends of the ellipse a good look: the Fontana della Dea Roma, where allegories of Rome and of the Tiber and Aniene rivers crown the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, and the Fontana del Nettuno, where the god of the sea, trident in hand, sits amid a court of dolphins and tritons.
Tip: Grab a spot on the steps of the Fontana dei Leoni at the square's centre and watch locals and visitors drift by, then look up at the 36 m Flaminio obelisk, among the earliest brought from Egypt to Rome by Augustus.
A place for executions: underneath the elegance of today lies a darker story from the age when the popes exercised absolute authority over their subjects. Like a few other spots in town, Piazza del Popolo was a stage for executions, and in the years from 1796 to 1864 most of the sentences, delivered through a range of inventive and horrific methods, were the handiwork of the feared Mastro Titta, a name that made the city tremble while he served the papacy.
The city's most famous shopping streets line up neatly on this Tridente walk: about 2 km and an hour of browsing from Via dell'Oca all the way to Piazza di Spagna.
The Pincio is technically a hill, though you will not find it in the classic list of Rome's seven; that does not stop it matching its 'official' rivals. The public garden on top, which shares the hill's name, is one of the oldest in Rome, loved for lazy afternoon strolls, welcome shade in the summer heat and, especially, some of the most gorgeous views in the city. The belvedere looks out over Piazza del Popolo, with the dome of St Peter's Basilica at one end of the vista and the Vittoriano at the other. Give yourself time to absorb it, particularly on clear days or in the golden hour.
Tip: Continue along the famous passeggiata to pick up the Pincio's curiosities: tiny Casina Valadier, now a cafe; a 19th-century water clock at the centre of a little lake; and the Pincian obelisk, one of Rome's 13 ancient obelisks, ordered by Emperor Hadrian in honour of his beloved Antinous.
Stone faces: a distinctive feature of the Pincio's promenade is the line of more than 200 busts along its avenues, paying tribute to all sorts of people who, across the centuries, helped shape Italy's history and culture. Of the 229 busts, just two are of women: St Catherine of Siena, patron of Rome and, with St Francis of Assisi, one of Italy's two patrons; and the writer Grazia Deledda, the only Italian woman ever to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Visits are by guided tour only, cost €2.50 and are conducted in Italian, so book well in advance. Arrive 15 minutes early with your passport or ID and use the secondary entrance on Via del Quirinale, not the main door on the piazza.
Every Sunday at 4pm, or 6pm in summer, outside the palace. Arrive early for a good spot, and remember to be respectful if you take pictures with the corazzieri on duty.