Dedaland

Il Quirinale.

Although some famous Italian singers don't know this... the President of the Italian Republic can be found inside the Quirinale.

The building is located on top of the Qurinale hill (you might not know this but Rome was built on 7 hills: Aventino, Campidoglio, Celio, Esquilino, Palatino, Quirinale and Viminale).

The Quirinale was built in 1583 and originally belonged to the Pope - it was his summer house - then it belonged to our Kings and when the Republic was born it became our President's office. If you want to talk to Mr. Giorgio Napolitano, then, you have to go there! First you'll have to pass his famous bodyguards: i Corazzieri! (the tallest Carabinieri in the army, they are colled corazzieri because the wear a corazza - which is an armor.)

In front of the Quirinale are located the Stables. They used to be stables now are places where you go to see exhibits... but you can see what it used to be by the fact that the steps are very short.

It is not allowed to take pictures inside the building, unless you are at the café (from which window I took the picture above) and I kinda stole the picture of the staircase.

I had gone to see a Caravaggio exhibit - to die for, let me tell you, something really crazy for your hormones too - and took advantage of the situation to take a picture of the square.

You might have noticed that the flags are not visible in the first picture... the flag were half risen due to State funerals: 2 alpine soldier died in Afghanistan.