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For the American baseball player, see Mike Piazza

For the coupé car, see Isuzu Piazza


and the Fontana (fountain) del Moro in central Rome , Italy . The other fountain (in the background, surrounded by scaffolding) is Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi .]]

A piazza (IPA ) (also pronounced: pe-at-sa) is an open Square In A City , found in Italy , and also in some other places on the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish '' Plaza ''. In Ethiopia , it is used to refer to a part of a city.

When the Earl Of Bedford developed the first privately-ventured public square built in London, Covent Garden , his architect Inigo Jones surrounded it with Arcade s, in the Italian fashion. Talk about the ''piazza'' was connected in Londoners' minds, not with the square as a whole but with the arcades, which were called the "piazzas".

In Britain ''piazza'' now generally refers to a paved open pedestrian space, without grass or planting, often in front of a significant building or shops.

In the United States, in the early 19th century, a ''piazza'' by further extension became a fanciful name for a Colonnade d Porch . Yet, the word ''piazza'' was used by some, especially in the Boston area, to refer to a front Porch , fanciful or otherwise, connected to a house or apartment. Boston University, "Boston English"

Piazza is also a common last name for Italians and Italian-Americans. The name grew out of the region surrounding Venice, and large populations of Piazza reside in Calabria, Sicily, and Venice.

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