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Palazzo del Quirinale Review
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Palazzo del Quirinale
- Address: Piazza del Quirinale, Rome | Map It
- Phone: 06/46991
- Category: Castles/Palaces
- Location: Quirinale
Fodor's Review:
For centuries home of the popes, now official residence of the president of Italy, this spectacular palace was begun in 1574 by Pope Gregory XIII, who planned to use it as a summer residence, choosing the hilltop site mainly for the superb view. However, as early as 1592 Pope Clement VIII decided to make the palace the permanent home of the papacy, at a safe elevation above the malarial miasmas shrouding the low-lying Vatican. It remained the official papal residence until 1870, in the process undergoing a series of enlargements and alterations by a succession of architects. When Italian troops under Garibaldi stormed the city in 1870, making it the capital of the newly united Italy, the popes moved back to the Vatican and the Quirinale became the official residence of the kings of Italy. When the Italian people voted out the monarchy in 1946, the Quirinal Palace passed to the presidency of the Italian Republic.
You get a fair idea of the palace's splendor from the size of the building, especially the interminable flank of the palace on Via del Quirinale. Seen on tour, the state reception rooms are some of Italy's most majestic. Behind this wall are the palace gardens, which, like the gardens of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, were laid out by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este when he summered here. At 4 PM daily you can see the changing of the military guard, and occasionally you can glimpse the corazzieri (presidential guard). All extra-tall, they are a stirring sight in their magnificent crimson-and-blue uniforms, their knee-high boots glistening, and their embossed steel helmets adorned with flowing manes.
- Cost: EUR 5
- Open: Sept.-June, Sun. 8:30-noon
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4 responses; most recent on 10/06/2008, 04:55 pm - Express train between Fiumicino and Rome Termini at Christmas/New Year
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