 Galleria Colonna: "This very fine collection of paintings is arranged in magnificent Baroque galleries, sumptuously decorated with frescoes, mirrors and antique sculpture...The setting with its marble floors and huge columns (to suit the family name) is perhaps even more splendid than the nearby Doria-Pamphilj palace." (Blue Guide to Rome).
The Gallery, which is still the property of the Colonna family, is only open on Saturday mornings. For more information, click here.
Museo Barracco: The museum is housed in the Piccola Farnesina an elegant Renaissance palace, which was built in 1523 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger for Thomas Le Roy, an important French official at the Papal Court.
For his services to Pope Leo X and King Francis I of France, Le Roy, the son of a French peasant, was ennobled and given the right to augment his coat of arms with the royal lilies of France. This heraldic privilege is recorded in the architectural details of the palace. The three floors are marked by projecting bands displaying Le Roy ermines and Farnese lilies (which replaced the lilies of France), hence the name of the palace.
The palace was built to face the Vicolo dell'Aquila, to the south. Its north side was only exposed following the building of the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, in 1876. At this point a new facade was added. The palace is also known as the Farnesina ai Baullari. It now houses a small, but choice collection of ancient sculpture, once the property of Senator Giovanni Barracco. For more information about the collection, click here.
 Cloister of Santa Maria della Pace: The delightful cloister of the church of Santa Maria della Pace was designed, at the beginning of the 16th century, by Donato Bramante (his first work in Rome) and commissioned by Cardinal Carafa, as the inscription indicates.
Often referred to as Bramante's cloister, it comprises two storeys and seems to have been partly inspired by the Theatre of Marcellus. The most unusual feature of the design is the placing of a column above the centre of each of the ground-floor arches. This breaks the hallowed rule of void over void and solid over solid. The cloister is now used as a venue for exhibitions and also houses a rather good cafe (Closed Mondays).
.jpg) Oratorio del Gonfalone: The Oratorio del Gonfalone can be found in a small street of the same name, which lies off the Via Giulia.
Gonfalone were flag bearers and the confraternity was their guild. The oratorio contains frescoes by Federico Zuccari (1573). Nowadays, the church is used as a venue for concerts given by the Coro Polifonico Romano.
 'English' Cemetery: One of the most peaceful places in Rome must be the English Cemetery. It is also often referred to as the Protestant Cemetery; its correct name, however, is the Cimitero Acattolico or Non-Catholic cemetery.
The oldest graves date back to 1738. It was originally a meadow until the Pope permitted protestants to use it as a burial ground. At first the dead could only be buried at night and gravestones were prohibited. Most English speaking visitors come to pay their respects at the grave of the Romantic poet John Keats and the spot where Trelawney buried Shelley’s heart.
Keats' friend, the artist Joseph Severn, is buried next to him. Severn, who nursed the poet through the last months of his illness, lived to the grand old age of 85. His tomb-stone was paid for by the people who are listed on the other side of the stone.
Keats’ tombstone is engraved with the following lines: '"This Grave contains all that was mortal of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET Who, on his death bed, in the bitterness of his heart, at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone ‘Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water’ Feb. 24th 1821." The poet’s actual name is omitted.
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