Via Condotti historical timeline

Last updated on October 4, 2026

6.2 /10

Overall rating

Rate

A Roman service road named after its pipework, which became the most expensive address in Italy.

Chronology

Ancient Rome — the street is one of the roads that crossed the Via Flaminia, allowing people who had crossed the Tiber to reach the Pincio Hill. Structural impact: the line of the street is fixed as a through route. What you see today: why it runs dead straight between the Corso and the Pincio's foot.
Ancient Rome, continued — the condotti, the conduits that once carried water to the Baths of Agrippa, give the street its name. Structural impact: a water line under a road. What you see today: the name on the street sign, and nothing else of it.
1760 — Caffè Greco is established at Via dei Condotti 86. Structural impact: a long narrow room behind a shopfront. What you see today: the oldest interior on the street, still in use.
18th–19th centuries — the café attracts Stendhal, Goethe, Byron, Liszt and Keats. Structural impact: none. What you see today: the pictures and portraits on its walls, and the reason the street was fashionable before it was expensive.
1821 — Keats dies at the foot of the Spanish Steps, a hundred metres from the café. Structural impact: none. What you see today: the two addresses, and how close together they are.
1937 — Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio, dies at Via dei Condotti 11, where he had lived. Structural impact: none. What you see today: a shopfront with a flat above it that most people walk past.
May 1986 — the designer Valentino files suit to close a McDonald's that had opened near the Spanish Steps, complaining of noise and disgusting odours below his six-storey palazzo in the vicinity of Via Condotti. McDonald's overcomes the obstacles and is successful, to the dismay of some Romans. Structural impact: none, which was the point of the case. What you see today: the street's relationship with what it considers beneath it, settled in court and lost.
1908-1909 — the café's own archive records that the multi-storey building at Via dei Condotti 85-86 was among the assets in the estate of Mosè Levi, who died on 10 June 1909, with a commercial lease of 1908 in force when the holographic will was published on 12 June 1909; the tenancy with Federico Gubinelli's Antico Caffè Greco, owner of the furnishings and licence holder, was maintained by the widow Levi as usufructuary. Structural impact: none — the café had occupied the ground floor since 1760, in narrower premises than today. What you see today: the arrangement that still defines the place: a famous café that has always been a tenant.
Today — the street is regarded as one of the most expensive streets in Europe and is a centre of fashion shopping in Rome, with Dior, Gucci, Valentino, Hermès, Armani, Prada, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana, Bulgari, Cartier, Tiffany and Louis Vuitton among the stores, and others such as Laura Biagiotti keeping offices here. Structural impact: the ground floors are given over entirely to retail. What you see today: one brand per frontage, the length of the street.

Verified against Antico Caffè Greco, October 2026.

External resources

Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Antico Caffè Greco — The Antico Caffe Greco records that the multi-storey building at Via dei Condotti 85-86 was among the assets in the estate of Mose Levi, who died on 10 June 1909, that the already famous Caffe Greco had occupied the ground floor since 1760 in narrower premises than today, that a commercial lease of 1908 was in force when the holographic will was published on 12 June 1909, and that the tenancy with the Antico Caffe Greco business of Federico Gubinelli, owner of the furnishings and licence holder, was maintained over time by the widow Levi as usufructuary (October 2026).
Checked against Wikipedia — Via dei Condotti begins at the foot of the Spanish Steps and takes its name from the conduits — condotti — that once carried water to the Baths of Agrippa, In ancient Roman times Via dei Condotti was one of the roads that crossed the Via Flaminia, allowing people who had crossed the Tiber to reach the Pincio Hill, Situated in the Tridente district, Via dei Condotti connects Via del Corso with Piazza di Spagna and is regarded as one of the most expensive streets in Europe, and is the home of Italy's most famous fashion houses, often referred to as Italy's Rodeo Drive, Caffè Greco, or Antico Caffè Greco, perhaps the most famous café in Rome, was established at Via dei Condotti 86 in 1760 and attracted figures such as Stendhal, Goethe, Byron, Liszt and Keats to have coffee there, Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio, lived at Via dei Condotti 11 until his death in 1937, Being near the Spanish Steps, Via dei Condotti is visited by large numbers of tourists, and in May 1986 the fashion designer Valentino filed suit to close a McDonald's shortly after it opened near the Spanish Steps, complaining of noise and disgusting odours below his six-storey palazzo in the vicinity of Via Condotti; McDonald's overcame the obstacles, to the dismay of some Romans (October 2026).

Via Condotti historical timeline

Chronology

External resources

Recommended articles