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Fontana di Trevi - Photo © Stanislaw Urbaniak
Water in Rome.
Undoubtedly there is no city in the
world that has more waters and fountains than Rome. It has been thus
since ancient times, when 11 aqueducts supplied thousands and
thousands of liters of water to the city each day, feeding the
countless fountains and magnificent baths. The sacking of the Goths,
resulting in the cutting of the aqueducts, ended this richness, and
only at the end of the 16th century did the popes tackle the water
supply problem adequately. Since then Rome was adorned with dozens of
monumental fountains celebrating the pontiffs' munificence, often
flanked by drinking troughs and public basins for practical uses. And
today still, while we admire these masterpieces, we refresh ourselves
by drinking the excellent water running from the typical
drinking-water fountains affectionately called "nasoni" - big noses -
because of the curious shape of the curved spout.
The theatrical Fountain of the Naiads,
one of the most beautiful fountains of modern Rome, is the work of
sculptor Mario Rutelli, who created it in 1901 to adorn
Piazza della Repubblica, originally called Piazza Esedra.
Fontana delle Naiadi - Photo © Benedetto Dell'Ariccia
The old name derives from the fact that the square was created, in the
late 1900s, following the curved line of the large exedra of the
majestic Baths of Diocletian, recently restructured and reopened to
the public. Between the two semicircular porticos buildings opens
Via Nazionale, an important main street and lively commercial
zone. At no. 194 is the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, the site of
interesting exhibitions.
The roof garden is one of the most popular places in Rome for short
snacks, lunches, or mundane and cultural events.
The four bronze nymphs placed around
the basin of the Fountain of the Naiads were the subject of fierce
controversy, which led to the raising of a fence to prevent the sight
of the female figures, considered too sensual because of the manner in
which they were embracing the sea monsters. The fence was removed by
popular acclaim, but the criticism did not end, so the sculptor
created the central group which, depicting three tritons, a dolphin
and an octopus, was quickly christened "mixed fish fry". The group was
transferred to Piazza Vittorio and replaced with the figure of Glaucus
Fighting a Triton.
For those with a sweet tooth a stop at
the Dagnino bar-pastry shop, Via V. Emanuele Orlando 75, is a must. It
offers the best Sicilian specialities, from cannoli to marzipan fruit.
Those, on the other hand, in search of guidebooks or other books can
go to Feltrinelli International, Via V. Emanuele Orlando 84, or Mel
Book Store,
Via Nazionale 255.
Often the creation of aqueducts and
fountains was dictated, more than by the desire to meet the
population's needs, by the desire to satisfy private interests of the
popes. This is the case of the Fountain of Moses in
Piazza San Bernardo, which forms the "display", i.e. the terminal
part of the Felice aqueduct, thus named after Pope Sixtus V, Felice
Peretti, who restored the ancient Alessandrino aqueduct.
This was done mainly to serve the huge
villa, which no longer exists, that the pope had built starting in
1585 and which occupied the entire Termini Station area as far as the
Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The figure of Moses as he makes
water gush forth from the rock, an obvious reference to the pope who
restored the aqueduct, was so strongly criticised for its lack of
elegance and proportion that it became the subject of a humorous
pasquinade:
Guarda con l'occhio torvo
l'acqua che sgorga ai piú,
pensando inorridito
al danno che a lui fú
uno scultor stordito.
(He looks with a surly eye
at the water gushing at his feet
thinking, horrified,
of the damage done to him
by a dazed sculptor.)
Going down
Via Barberini we reach the square of the same name, characterized
by the lovely Triton's Fountain, a masterpiece by Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, who created it in around 1642.
The whimsical composition, which
decorated the square in front of the palace of the noble Barberini
family (see Itinerary 11), depicts a triton held up by four dolphins
as he is blowing into a shell, proclaiming the family's glory to the
world. Up until the 18th century a macabre ritual would take place in
front of the fountain: the corpses of the unknown would be shown there
as a crier would call for them to be recognised.
At no. 120 of
Via del Tritone is Planet Hollywood, part of the chain of
restaurants opened all over the world by a company formed by a group
of famous American movie actors including Sylvester Stallone and
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bees, the heraldic symbol of the
Barberini, in addition to decorating the base of the Triton's
Fountain, are the protagonists of a small but lovely composition
placed at the corner between
Piazza Barberini and
Via Veneto, the Fountain of the Bees.
The three insects, situated on the hinge
of an open bivalve shell, were sculpted by Bernini in 1644, to
celebrate the twenty-second anniversary of the papacy of Pope Urban
VIII. The fact that he finished it before the actual date of the
anniversary seems to have been a bad omen for the pontiff, who
unfortunately died eight days before it.
From here starts
Via Veneto, "twinned" with Fifth Avenue in New York, the symbol of
the Dolce Vita of the '50s and 60s.
The elegant street, celebrated by
Federico Fellini, is the hangout of politicians, intellectuals,
entertainers and journalists, often immortalised by the ever-present
"paparazzi". Renowned the world over are its luxurious hotels, the
Excelsior, the Majestic, the Ambasciatori and the Regina Palace, and
its famous cafés, such as Café de Paris, Doney and Harry's Bar. Across
from the American Embassy, a Hard Rock Café has also been opened
recently.
The entire quarter was created between the late 1800s and the early
1900s, when the Boncompagni Ludovisi princes decided, with an
unscrupulous action of real estate speculation, to divide the land
belonging to their 17th-century splendid villa into lots. Of the
villa, only the Casino dell'Aurora (on Via Boncompagni), decorated by
Guercino and Caravaggio, remains, and unfortunately it is not easily
accessible.
Fontana di Trevi - Photo © Anabel Gregorio
From
Via del Tritone we enter
Via della Stamperia, which leads to the
Trevi Fountain, certainly the most famous and spectacular fountain
in Rome, made even more famous by the night-time wading of Anita
Ekberg in Federico Fellini's film La dolce vita.
The fountain is the terminal part of
the Vergine aqueduct built by Agrippa, a general of Augustus, in 19
B.C. to bring the water coming from the Salone springs, 19 km away, to
Rome.
Legend, illustrated in the fountain's
upper panels, has it that it was a young girl who showed Agrippa's
thirsty soldiers where a copious spring gushed forth. Hence the name
of the aqueduct which, running underground for a long stretch, is the
only one in Rome that has remained in use almost uninterruptedly from
the time of its construction to the present day. This is the aqueduct
that supplies the water to the monumental fountains of the historic
centre, from Piazza Navona to
Piazza di Spagna.
The name "Trevi", on the other hand, allegedly derives from the word
Trivium, a meeting point of three streets that form this little
widened area.
It is truly surprising to see such a
large fountain in such a small square, but the artist Nicola Salvi,
who created it between 1732 and 1762, carefully studied the way to
increase the sensation of marvel. Indeed, he set it almost entirely
against the face of Palazzo Poli, preceding it with a little balconied
scene, almost as if it were a theatre! The artist was, however,
disturbed during his work by the continuous criticism expressed by a
barber who had his shop in the square. To shut him up, during one
night Salvi created the large basin, familiarly called the "Ace of
Cups", situated on the right-hand balustrade, which completely blocked
the view of the fountain from the shop. Everyone knows that, if they
want to return to Rome, they have to throw a coin into the basin, but
be careful: for the dream to come true, you have to toss it over your
shoulder with your back to the fountain!
Across from the fountain it is possible to admire the lively
façade of the Chiesa dei Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio.
The building, which was a Papal Parish
for centuries, preserves the hearts and lungs of 22 popes who died in
the Quirinal Palace standing nearby (see Itinerary 9): from Sixtus V,
who died in 1590, to Leo XIII, who died in 1903. Pope Pius X abolished
this custom which had prompted Belli, the famous Roman dialect poet,
to call the church "museo de' corate e de' ciorcelli" (pluck museum),
from the popular term used to refer to the viscera of butchered
animals.
La Barcaccia - Photo © cassandra feist
Returning onto
Via della Stamperia and continuing along
Via del Nazareno, we soon reach
Piazza di Spagna (see Itineraries 8 and 14) where, at the foot of
the staircase of Trinitá dei Monti, the "Spanish Steps", we find the
Fontana della Barcaccia.
This is the work of Pietro Bernini, who
created it in around 1629, probably with the aid of his famous son
Gian Lorenzo. According to tradition, the unusual fountain shaped like
a semi-submerged boat was ordered by Pope Urban VIII Barberini to
commemorate a boat that had ended up stranded in the square during the
great flood of 1598. In reality, the idea of depicting the boat as it
is sinking was dictated by Bernini's genius, since he had to solve a
technical problem: in fact, here the pressure of the Vergine aqueduct
was rather low, and it was necessary to create a fountain beneath the
ground level.
From
Piazza di Spagna starts
Via del Babuino, famous for its antique shops, which owes its name
to a small fountain against the Church of Sant'Atanasio dei Greci.
The ancient statue overlooking the
granite basin depicts a supine, sneering wanderoo but the Romans,
because of its ugliness, compared it to a monkey or, more exactly, a
baboon. It is said that a cardinal, a bit on in years, would kneel
down before it in respect every time he passed by, believing it to be
the portrait of St. James. The Baboon is one of Rome's "talking
statues", where satirical pieces and diatribes of a political nature,
strictly anonymous, used to be posted (see Itinerary 10).
Parallel to to
Via del Babuino runs
Via Margutta which, since the 1600s, Italian and foreign artists
have chosen as the picturesque location for their studios.
Although it is no longer as it once
was, the street has preserved a considerable charm, also thanks to the
presence of shops such as "Marmoraro", at no. 53, where marble is
still worked using traditional artisan techniques and old tools. The
pretty Fountain of the Artists,
near n. 54, was created in 1927 by Pietro Lombardi precisely to
recall this peculiarity, since it depicts easels, stands,
paintbrushes, and palettes.
This original composition is one of the "Fontanelle Rionali " series,
created starting in 1927 by architect Pietro Lombardi. Each quarter of
Rome is represented by one or more objects symbolising that
neighbourhood - the pinecone for Rione Pigna (Piazza San Marco), the
papal tiara for the Vatican (Largo del Colonnato), amphorae for the
Testaccio (Piazza Testaccio), the helm for Rione Ripa (Lungotevere
Ripa), and so on - all harmoniously inserted into their surrounding
contexts.
For vegetarians who also love
contemporary art, there is Margutta Vegetariano RistorArte where, in
addition to the traditional menu, every day it is possible to enjoy a
"Green brunch" while admiring shows of young artists , Via Margutta
119, Piazza del Popolo side (06 32650557).
Text courtesy of romaturismo.com Azienda Promozione Turistica Comune di Roma
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