Rome - Via del Corso and Side Streets

The Exchange occupies part of the site of a large ancient temple, eleven Corinthian columns from which are preserved along one side. Long thought to have been a temple of Neptune, it is now identified as the Hadrianeum, a temple erected in honor of the deified Hadrian. The floor of the temple now lies below street level. The temple was absorbed into the new customs house, now the Exchange, built by Carlo and Francesco Fontana in 1691-1700 under Pope Innocent II.

At Via del Corso 17 in Rome is the Goethe Museum, with pictures, manuscripts, books, etc., in a house where Goethe lived during his stay in Rome (1786-88).

St Charles Borromeo, to whom this church is dedicated, was born at Arena in 1538. In 1560 he was made Cardinal Archbishop of Milan by his uncle Pope Pius IV. He died in 1584 and was canonized in 1610. Soon after his canonization this church, built by Rosato Rosati, was dedicated to him by the Barnabite order. San Carlo ai Catinari (named after the manufacturers of washtubs, catinari, whose workshops were near here) has an imposing travertine facade and a very fine interior.