Palazzo Madama

The Senate of the Republic (Italian: Senato della Repubblica) or Senate (Italian: Senato) is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. The Senate currently has 315 seats. Pursuant to the amended Articles 57, 58, and 59 of the Italian Constitution, the Senate has a variable number of members, of which 196 will be elected from Italian constituencies in the next election, 4 from Italian citizens living abroad, and a small number (currently 6) are senators for life (senatori a vita), either appointed or ex officio. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno (Senate of the Kingdom), itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino (Subalpine Senate) of Sardinia established on 8 May 1848. Members of the Senate are styled Senator or The Honourable Senator (Italian: Onorevole Senatore) and they meet at Palazzo Madama, Rome.

The Contarelli Chapel or Cappella Contarelli is located within the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is famous for housing three paintings on the theme of Saint Matthew the Evangelist by the Baroque master Caravaggio. The paintings were Caravaggio's first major public commission and one that cemented his reputation as a master artist. The chapel commemorates the French cardinal Matthieu Cointerel.

The Church of St. Louis of the French (Italian: San Luigi dei Francesi, French: Saint Louis des Français, Latin: S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and St. Louis IX, king of France. The church was designed by Giacomo della Porta and built by Domenico Fontana between 1518 and 1589, and completed through the personal intervention of Catherine de' Medici, who donated to it some property in the area. It is the national church in Rome of France. It is a titular church. The current Cardinal-Priest of the title is André Vingt-Trois, former Archbishop of Paris.

The Fontana dei Libri (Fountain of the Books) is a fountain in Rome, Italy. It is located on the site of the Palazzo della Sapienza, where the Roman State Archives are. The fountain is known for its unique design.

The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) (Italian: Grande Oriente d'Italia) is an Italian masonic grand lodge founded in 1805; the viceroy Eugene of Beauharnais was instrumental in its establishment. It was based at the Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, Italy from 1901 until 1985 and is now located at the Villa del Vascello. Its current Grand Master is Italian journalist Stefano Bisi.As of September 2015 the Grand Orient had 22,675 members in 842 lodges, a significant growth over the preceding three-year period.The international influence of the Grand Orient has decreased since it lost the official recognition of the "Home Grand Lodges" (of England, Ireland, and Scotland) owing to alleged corruption, although it remains regular in government and practice.

Palazzo Giustiniani or the Piccolo Colle (Little Hill) is a palace on the Via della Dogana Vecchia and Piazza della Rotonda, in Sant'Eustachio, Rome. The palace contains the official residence of the President of the Senate of the Republic, the Sala Zuccari, the offices of the Life senators and former Presidents of Italy, and some administrative offices. From 1901 until 1985, it was also the seat of the Masonic order of the Grand Orient of Italy.

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (lit. 'Saint Ivo at the Sapienza (University of Rome)') is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642–1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini, the church is widely regarded a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture. The church is at the rear of a courtyard at 40, Corso del Rinascimento; the complex is now used by the State Archives of Rome.

Piazza Navona (pronounced [ˈpjattsa naˈvoːna]) is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis" ("competition arena"). It is believed that over time the name changed to in avone to navone and eventually to navona.

Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore ("Our Lady of the Sacred Heart", also known as San Giacomo degli Spagnoli and in Spanish, Santiago de los Españoles) is a Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome's Piazza Navona.

The Stadium of Domitian (Italian: Stadio di Domiziano), also known as the Circus Agonalis, was located to the north of the Campus Martius in Rome, Italy. The Stadium was commissioned around AD 80 by the Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus as a gift to the people of Rome, and was used mostly for athletic contests.

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor. The base of the fountain is a basin from the centre of which travertine rocks rise to support four river gods and above them, a copy of an Egyptian obelisk surmounted with the Pamphili family emblem of a dove with an olive twig. Collectively, they represent four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas.

The Fountain of Neptune (Italian: Fontana del Nettuno) is a fountain in Rome, Italy, located at the north end of the Piazza Navona. It was once called "Fontana dei Calderari" because it was located close to a small alley with blacksmith's workshops, makers of pots and pans and of other metal based businesses, all of them generating heat. The restoration of the Roman Aqua Virgo aqueduct in 1570 was immediately followed by the start of work on a continuation water supply pipe towards the district of the old Campo Marzio, which following the diminution of the city's size and importance was left as the most densely populated part of the city. Restoration of a piped water supply in turn permitted the construction of several public fountains. The basin of the Fontana del Nettuno, (without the sculptures), was designed in 1574 by Giacomo Della Porta, who was also responsible for the Moor Fountain at the other side of the square. It was sponsored by pope Gregory XIII. The lower part of the basin consists of white marble and the upper part of the local stone from Pietrasanta. For the next 300 years, the fountain survived without statues. Nineteenth-century infrastructure developments reduced dependence on urban fountains for drinking and washing purposes but increased their visual and political importance, especially following the creation of the Italian state with Rome as its capital after 1870. The fountain as it exists today was finally completed in 1878 by Antonio della Bitta, who added the imposing sculpture of Neptune fighting with an octopus, and Gregorio Zappalà, who created the other sculptures, based on the mythological theme of the "Nereids with Cupids and walruses". This statuary was added following a competition in 1873, in order to balance that of the Moor Fountain on the south side of the piazza and of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) at its centre.