On the hill behind Fontana di Trevi is the late 16th-century Quirinale Palace, built as a summer palace for the pope and now the official residence of Italy's president The splendidly dressed carabinieri guards outside are selected for their height. The statue of Castor, Pollux and the horses sorrounding the obelisk that faces the main entrance of the palace was assembled from ancient fragments of different provenances.

Head up Via del Quirinale to the right of the palace. On this long straight road, flanked on one side by gardens of the Palazzo del Quirinale, are two Baroque gems. First is Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale (1658) whose interior is cleverly designed and theatrically decorated so as to appear far larger and imposing than it really is. The second Baroque masterpiece is San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638) the first known work by Bernini's rival, Borromini, where the architect's love of mixing convex and concave surfaces can already be seen.

Also known by the romans as Piazza Esedra, so called because it follows the shape of an axedra (a semicircular recess) that was part of the bath of Diocletian. The fountain of the Naiadi and its four nakek bronz ninphs coused something of a scandal when they were reveiled in 1901.

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