A glass-roofed arcade off Piazza Colonna, where Liberty-style ironwork filters the Roman light onto the shops below.
At a glance
Long known as the Galleria Colonna, this covered arcade links Piazza Colonna to Via del Corso in the centre of Rome. Beneath a vault of coloured glass it gathers shops and cafés along a cross of walkways — a piece of early twentieth-century city-making set among far older streets.
History
The arcade was built in the early twentieth century and opened in 1922, in the Art Nouveau manner that Italy called Liberty. In 2003 it was renamed after Alberto Sordi, the Roman actor who had died that year and who belonged, in the public mind, to this stretch of the city as much as any building could.
What you see
The signature is overhead: a barrel of stained and leaded glass carried on iron ribs, throwing soft colour across the floor. The walkways meet at a central crossing, and the shopfronts keep their period frames. It is a calm, sheltered passage a few steps from the traffic of the Corso.
Key facts
- Location: Piazza Colonna / Via del Corso, Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Opened: 1922
- Former name: Galleria Colonna
- Renamed: 2003, for the actor Alberto Sordi
- Style: Art Nouveau (Italian Liberty), with a stained-glass vault
Practical information
- Free to walk through; shops and cafés keep their own hours
- A quiet, covered route between Piazza Colonna and the Corso
- A few minutes on foot from the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon
Getting there
The gallery opens directly onto Piazza Colonna on Via del Corso. The nearest Metro stations are Barberini and Spagna (Line A), each about ten minutes away; many buses stop on the Corso and at Piazza San Silvestro.
Gallery
The gallery, photographed by Luigi De Marchi.
See the place
Sources
- Turismo Roma — Roma Capitale (turismoroma.it)
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