Via Margutta is a small street in the centre of Rome, in the Campo Marzio district. It is located at the foot of the Pincio hills, a place of art galleries and trendy restaurants, that in the past housed craft workshops and stables. It is parallel to Via del Babuino, a street that goes from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza di Spagna.
In the 17th century, Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemisia had their studio on this street. In the following years, a number of artists from all over the world came to stay in the houses that overlook Via Margutta. Particularly significant in the 17th century was the presence of Flemish painters in love with the Roman countryside, proposing it to the whole world, among which we remember Pietro Paolo Rubens. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was the house of the painter Augusto Mussini and Gregorio Maltzef. Other painters lived in the vicinities of Via Margutta: Nicolas Poussing, Jusepe de Ribera, Gaspar van Wittel, Pier Leone Ghezzi and Pablo Picasso. In recent years, the sculptor Antonio Canova also wanted to set up one of his studios on this street.
In the 1950s, after the film Roman Holiday, it became an exclusive street, residence of famous people, including director Federico Fellini, the actresses Giulietta Masina and Anna Magnani, the painter Giorgio de Chirico and Renato Guttuso and the writer Gianni Rodari.
Today, Via Margutta is the headquarters of many art galleries, but it remains a quiet street where one can relive extraordinary Roman suggestions and atmospheres of other times.