Spanish Steps the foundation of Rome, April 21, part of the steps are covered by pots of azaleas, up until early May. In modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, but they are usually crowded with people. The 1953 film "Roman Holiday", starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, made the Spanish Steps famous to an American audience. The apartment that was the setting for "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961) is halfway up on the right. Bernardo Bertolucci's "Besieged" (1998) is also
Spanish language in the United States American Spanish in the United States. Spanish was among the very first European languages spoken in North America, preceded only by Old Norse. Spanish arrived in the territory of the modern United States in 1493, with Columbus' arrival to Puerto Rico. Ponce de León explored what is now Florida in 1513. In 1565, the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, Florida, and as of the early 1800s, it became the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. In 1898, San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, became the oldest city in all of the U.S. territory: Juan