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 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.
At the cross-roads of the Quattro Fontane, where each corner is adorned with a 16th-century fountain, turn left and head down to Piazza Barberini, passing, on the right, the Palazzo Barberini. Bernini, Borromini and Carlo Maderno all worked on this 17th-century palace, built for the papal Barberini family whose bee symbol can be seen all over this part of the city.
Today it houses another important art collection with works by Fra Angelico, Raphael, El Greco and Tintoretto. In the centre of Piazza Barberini is Bernini's cheerful Tritone Fountain. The road leading down into the top left-hand corner of the piazza is Via Veneto, the heart of Dolce Vita Rome during the 1950s and 1960s.
