You can only have a good idea of how the Porto di Ripetta used to look before the new river embankments were constructed by looking at the Piazza in front of Ponte Cavour. The 18th century brought winds of change that not even the popes could ignore; they had to adapt the city of Rome, albeit slightly, to the new social and cultural situation

Within this framework, the reconstruction of the port was one of the most significant works of infrastructure and it was needed for the growing trade in wood, oil, salt, and wine inside the Papal States.
Alessandro Specchi was commissioned to do the work which resulted in some of the new century's most attractive architecture. The new port not only provided facilities for merchant ships but it became a crossroads of commercial and cultural interests, and in turn led to new urban development in the neighborhood.
The wealthy, cultured society of this re-developed quarter of Rome found its echo and expression in the piazzas, stairways and fountains that decorated the district.