Via XX Settembre, in the Sallustiano district, runs straight from Porta Pia to the intersection with via delle Quattro Fontane where the straight continues with the name of via del Quirinale.
The name of the street recalls the entry of the Bersaglieri into Rome through the breach of Porta Pia, from which the street begins and ends at the crossroads of via delle Quattro Fontane.
Having built the Porta Pia designed by Michelangelo at the behest of Pius IV, the pope also wanted to arrange the long and straight road that opened in front of the gate and which at the time was referred to only as "the road that goes from Montecavallo to Porta Nomentana", but which in antiquity was known as “Alta Semita“, the main road axis of the Quirinale ill along which the “porta Collina” opened. The street was finished in 1565 and was called "Strada Pia" in honor of the pope who had enlarged and adapted it. It kept this name (except for a small parenthesis during which it was called "Stradone di Porta Pia") until 1870, when it was deemed appropriate to name it after the date of 20 September. It was on this occasion that the street was limited to via delle Quattro Fontane, while the remaining stretch assumed the name of via del Quirinale. On the right side of the street is the entrance to Villa Paolina, also known as Villa Bonaparte, a splendid eighteenth-century villa which extended, within the Aurelian Walls, between Porta Pia and Porta Salaria, purchased in 1816 by Paolina Borghese, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte married to Prince Borghese, who remained there until 1824.
In 1907 it was bought by the Prussian ambassador Otto von Mühlberg and subsequently became the property of Germany until the Second World War. Then it passed to France since 1950 and it is now the seat of the French Embassy to the Holy See (with entrance in via Piave).
In front of the portal of the villa is the building that is the seat of the Embassy of Great Britain, built between 1968. It is a very modern construction in the structure and has two pool fountains that adorn the two sides of the entrance.
Continuing, at number 97 of the street there is a "big building" which later became the seat of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the first of the ministerial big buildings in Rome.
From the street you can admire the pediment on Via Cernaia depicting the Allegory of Industry and Agriculture, created by Pietro Costa with a majestic Savoyard coat of arms in the centre. At the corner with Piazza S.Bernardo we find the beautiful church of S.Maria della Vittoria built with funds from Cardinal Scipione Borghese and begun in 1608 by Maderno as a church dedicated to St. Paul. Inside there is the famous Cornaro Chapel by Gian Lorenzo Bernini which highlights the sculpture of the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Where the vegetable garden of the church of Santa Maria della Vittora was originally located, today is the Ministry of Agriculture built between 1904 and 1914 on a project by the architect Cavagnari. Continuing we see on the left the Fontana dell' Acqua Felice with the sculpture di Mose, piazza S. Bernardo with the round-shaped church of San Bernardo, and the Piazza di Santa Susanna, with the church and the cistercian convent. The stretch of road between Piazza S.Bernardo and Via delle Quattro Fontane also houses the Ministry of Defence, built between 1878 and 1885 as the Ministry of War with the characteristic neo-Renaissance style. On the right you can see the beautiful 19th century Palazzo Bourbon - Artom and you arrive at the Quatto Fontane crossroads.
An interesting itinerary with exceptional art monuments and some imposing government buildings.
It deserves a stroll.