On Sunday 2 October the association of Italian bankers, ABI, will open some of its prestigious and historically-important buildings to the public for the third successive year.

Buildings all over Italy, varying from historic houses to modern-purpose built banks, will be visible. In Rome it will be possible to visit six different places; the headquarters of ABI, the Palazzo Altieri in Piazza del Ges, built by Pope Clemente X and one of the most important baroque palaces in the city; Palazzo dei Carolis in Via Lata 3, once the head office of the Banca di Rome and now part of Capitalia; Palazzo Verospi, Via del Corso 374 which belonged to Unicredit; Palazzo Mancini, Via del Corso 271, Roman offices of the Banco di Sicilia since the 19th century. Not to be missed is the elaborately-decorated chapel at Monte di Peit, in the building which was formally the municipal pawn shop of Rome, designed by Carlo Maderno and built in the 1640s, and finally the headquarters of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Via Veneto 33, designed by the famous architect Marcello Piacentini in the 1930s and home to the important BNL collection of tapestries, rare maps, Roman sculpture and paintings by Italian masters, from Canaletto to De Chirico.

"Invito al Palazzo 2004". Saturday 2 October from 10.00 -19.00. For information www.abi.it.