The first itinerary crosses Rome from west to east linking St. Peter's Square to the former Basilica Liberiana. Turning your back to St. Peter's dome and heading down Via della Conciliazione towards the Tiber, the stational church of Santa Maria in Transpontina is on the left. Across the river, you come to Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, a street lined with a succession of Umbertian-style buildings, whose uniformity is broken only by the impressive façade of Santa Maria in Vallicella, known to Romans as the Chiesa Nuova. Beside it stands the Filippini Oratory designed by Borromini. Further along on the other side of the street rises the beautiful Renaissance palace of the Cancelleria, which guards within its walls the early Christian basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso. Moving on, the itinerary leads you past the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, whose dome is second only to St. Peter's. After the Area Sacra archaeological site in Largo Torre Argentina, the church of the Santissimo Nome di Gesù all'Argentina (commonly known as the Church of Gesù) rises majestically on the right. Consecrated to the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), it is a typical example of baroque taste with a profusion of gilding and stuccoes.
Crossing Piazza Venezia and heading up the Quirinal hill you come to Via Panisperna (which means "bread and ham" in Latin, so named because an eating establishment was located there in Roman times).
Down a steep descent and up again you eventually reach the Esquiline, another of the seven hills of Rome, where St. Mary Major stands. This is the arrival point of the first itinerary.
