The Piazza Navona began its life as a circus called Circo Agonale, built by the emperor Domitian, in 86 AD. It became the square of the powerful and wealthy in the 16th century and today it is popular with everybody and nicknamed "The Roman living room". Piazza Navona was also the main Roman market for 300 years until the merchants and stalls were moved to Campo dei Fiori.
The largest and most famous of the three fountains on Piazza Navona is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or The Fountain of the Four Rivers, meaning The Nile, The Ganges, The Danube and Rio Plata, which were the four largest known rivers of four continents known in the 16th century. Romans are used to fountains, but when the Fontana die Quattro Fiumi had the water turned on for the first time, the Romans were in awe of the force and creative fashions in which the water sprouted from the fountain. Next to it is the baroque church Sant'Agnese in Agone by Borromini.
The Fontana di Nettuno or Neptune Fountain by Zappala and Bitta is at the North end of the Piazza Navona. If you go the 30 meters up the Via Agonale North from the square to the Via de Sant'Agostino and turn left, you find the last remaining part of the original Circo Agonale.
The Piazza Navona is full of life from early morning till late night - Romans and tourists alike come to enjoy this most Roman of Roman squares, not least in the evening and night when it gets cooler. The East side of the Piazza Navona is lined with restaurants and cafes, but keep in mind that this is an expremely popular place in Rome, and their prices are set correspondingly.
The Fontane del Moro in the South end of Piazza Navona is by Giacomo della Porta in 1576, with a Moor holding a dolphin added by Bernini some 300 years later. During the market period the new stall holders went through an initiation ritual which was a parody on how popes were initiated into their function - two large men would pick up the new man and carry him around the Quattro Fiumi once, dip the man three times into the fountain as a form of baptism and put him back on their shoulders and carried him over to the steps of the church, where the initiation committee would accept him into the group of stall holders. Meanwhile, a large crowd would have gathered and cheer the proceedings on while they eagerly waited for the new man to finally and loudly invite everybody to a nearby bar for a free drink to toast to his future commercial fortune on the Piazza Navona.
Alle three fountains on the Piazza Navona were used as water sources to flood the entire Piazza Navona between 1652 and the 19th century. Their drains were plugged every Saturday and Sunday, and the finer citizens of Rome came in their horse drawn carriages and rode around the square, where the water reportedly reached the nave of the front wheels of the carriages.
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