Wide Haussmann-style boulevards and solid bourgeois apartment blocks set Prati apart from the rest of Rome. Built in the late nineteenth century to house a newly unified Italy's bureaucratic class, the neighbourhood sits immediately east of the Vatican walls — which means it serves as the practical base for visiting St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, both a short walk away. Book the Vatican Museums well in advance; the queue without a booking is among the longest in Rome.
Via Cola di Rienzo is Prati's main artery: a long, straight shopping street lined with delis, wine bars, and family-run trattorie where locals eat proper Roman food without a tourist premium. The covered Mercato Trionfale on Via Andrea Doria is one of the better food markets in the city — excellent cheese, cured meats, and fresh pasta. Piazza Cavour anchors the southern end, flanked by the neoclassical Palazzo di Giustizia, whose bulk earned it the nickname Il Palazzaccio. A short walk along the Tiber embankment from here reaches Castel Sant'Angelo, the cylindrical mausoleum converted into a papal fortress, with the Ponte Sant'Angelo's angel-lined bridge leading back toward the centro storico.