Piazza - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

PIAZZA, properly an open square or place in an Italian town (Ital. piazza, from Lat. platea, broad space, Gr. iraccrus, broad). These squares were usually surrounded with a. colonnade or arcade, and thus the word has been loosely applied to a covered walk or arcade along the front of a building, and in America, to the veranda of a house.