With its wide and regular streets and post-unification architecture, Prati is in many ways the antithesis of the historic centre of Rome. However, despite the fact that it lacks the charm of many of the older parts of the eternal city, it is a pleasant, elegant and easy area to get around and in which to shop and meet friends.

Prati di Castello, or Prati as it is called, is one of the more recently developed areas close to the city centre. It is bordered by Borgo S. Angelo and the Vatican to the south, the Tiber to the east and Viale delle Milizie to the north. Its name tells of its recent history as fields or meadows; indeed, in photos taken as late as the 1890s one can see a stretch of almost uninterrupted green space next to the Borgo on the St Peter