Rome - Colonna

The Palazzo Bonaparte - still bearing the name on the facade - stands at the end of the Corso nearest Piazza Venezia. In this 17th century palace Napoleon's mother Letizia Ramorino lived until her death in 1836.

After the Turkish victory in the battle of Kosovo in 1387 many refugees from Dalmatia and Albania fled to Rome, and this church (built during the reigns of Sixtus IV and V and completed in 1588) was thereafter known as the church "degli Illirici" or "degli Schiavoni". It is now the Croatian national church and has a priests' college attached to it.

The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, dedicated to the martyr St Lawrence, who is much venerated in Rome, has had an eventful history. Originally built in the fourth and fifth centuries over the house of a Roman woman named Lucina, it was rebuilt in the 12th century and received its present form in 1650. On the high altar is a "Crucifixion" by Guido Reni, one of his finest works. The fourth chapel in the south aisle, the Fonseca Chapel, was designed by Bernini.