Rome Under Wraps

 I first noticed it when visiting Piazza della Rotunda, the piazza in front of the Pantheon, in October 2024. In addition to the clutter of street construction roundabout there was hoarding surrounding the monumental Fontana della Rotunda. Built in 1517, one of the first Renaissance fountains with its masks, dragons and the later addition of an Egyptian obelisk (Ramses II)  at the behest of Pope Clement XI, it sits in front of the Pantheon, largely ignored is my guess.  It's one of 300 monumental fountains in the city.

To the left, the 2023 unveiled version.

Now as I've mentioned before, a lot of these elaborate fountains don't impress me much, although I appreciate the access to cool fresh water. The sound of its trickling and splashing is welcome above the din.The gathering crowds, not so much. The over the top sculpture, meh. As a person who hates clutter, it's all vaguely disquieting. Still, plenty of other stuff to look at. This is Rome, after all. This video takes you for a walk to many renowned fountains and provides some good history.

Here's where the water of an ancient Roman aqueduct reaches thirsty tourists, the Trevi Fountain (shown in 2023.) There's a tap in a little grotto - you don't dip your water bottle into the fountain, with all those coins. 

I read that many of these fountains are gravity fed from aqueducts; 11 of them supplied ancient Rome. I would love to know the engineering; my travelling companion would have explained everything. The Pantheon fountain is supplied by the Aqua Vergine aqueduct (1570.). Now there's a story. The Vergine is the Renaissance reworking of the ancient Aqua Virgo. The story goes that a young girl led thirsty Roman soldiers to the spring, its source. Here's a link to the Roman engineering story thanks to Wikipedia.

As I walked around Rome I began to notice many familiar fountains and other architectural features surrounded by hoarding. It blended with the massive subway construction interruptions, visually and practically. I don't want to think about how frustrating driving must have been. 

But the fountains. Not a big disappointment for me, as I had seen the most iconic ones the previous year. But overall, the hoarding was a bit visually distracting, until the eye became accustomed to ignoring it and focussing on the important stuff. The good news is that none of the Ancient Roman sites I came to see were wrapped. I suppose everything vaguely ecclesiastical - and as I read, the fountains were commissioned by popes - was getting a brush-up for Jubilee Year.

Here's the approach to Castel Sant'Angelo, the 134 AD Aelian bridge, a Roman bridge now called Ponte Sant'Angelo, the majestic approach to the former Mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian.  Different look in 2024, agree? This CNN article explains the facelift that was going on in Rome. I expect it's all better now. But for the massive crowds. For this year is Jubilee Year, when millions of pilgrims and other tourists are descending on Rome. A good year to avoid visiting, if you're crowd averse. I picked my year well, without even realizing. The city expects 30-35 million visitors in 2025, this papal event that has happened every 25 years since 1300. My airport taxi driver told me he was planning to take the year off. 

2023

 

2024

Thought I'd look at some 'before and after' photos and revisit  some pretty special memories of the past two years in Rome.

Ever positive, here's a nice spin on all the disruption from Rick Steves. Keep on travellin'!

This is Piazza Navona, with after/before photos of two of its famous three fountains. 

On the left, a view of the Neptune Fountain, captured by squishing up close to the grid fence and poking a lens through. No-one yelled at me.

Lots going on: mythological cherubs, Neptune fighting with an octopus. The fountain started out as a simple marble basin.The energetic sculpture grouping by various artists was added only in 1873. 

The above masterpiece with the Egyptian obelisk (copy) rising from the centre is the dynamic Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini (1651.) It depicts "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 Rio de la Plata representing the Americas." Thanks Wikipedia, that was all a bit much for me.  Here's a Smarthistory article for the files.

As you can see, despite the crowds gathered around it (I always think they're saying to themselves, I'm here, got myself in the photo with this famous thing, now what?) you can see the sculptures. The 2024 view would have been a big disappointment for them.

And all of this has made me miss Rome and the Piazza Navona, so I've added this link so I can revisit the piazza with this very pleasant art historian from the Netherlands, on his Stories of Art YouTube channel. 

I  read somewhere that water was turned off to the iconic (sorry, no better word) Trevi Fountain (left) last year, a trough provided for the tourists to throw their sentimental coins into. Bit of a let-down. I am posting my 2023 photo, as I'd been sufficiently unimpressed to skip a return visit in 2024. (What does it take to impress this woman??) 

The crowds were ridiculous, but I managed to find myself a corner. A local restauranteur (at home here in Canada) told me he'd proposed to his fiancee there, a few years ago. Imagine if he'd picked 2024?

Enjoy this YouTube video of the temporary walkway, the empty fountain, and the expressions on the faces of people adjusting to the new reality. Enter the walkway at 10:30 on the video, enjoy an unprecedented closeup of the marble sculptures at 12:23. Thanks, Amazing Walking Tour. You can see the difference a good scrubbing makes. 

The barfing lion statue in Piazza Populo was cleaned before I arrived in 2024. The Fountain of the Four Lions (1828) is four small separate fountains, each lion on an Egyptian-looking ceremonial plinth, gathered protectively around the Flaminian obeslisk. Augustus had that booty brought from Egypt in 10BCE. How, exactly ?? 

2023

nice clean lion

Here are two fountains I didn't revisit this past fall. They're both so darned cute. I'll just enjoy them here. My habit is to wait until the crowd disperses before taking a photo. That might have been tricky this year. 

The oddly shaped half-sunken boat fountain, the Barcaccia Fountain, designed by a Bernini and built 1627-9, sits at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, up which you can see people trudging in the background. The inspiration, according to legend, was the appearance of a small boat in the Piazza di Spagna after the Tiber flooded in 1598.

It makes me think of a crying fish.

Here's another fountain I love, the Fontana della Tiare, with three shell-shaped basins, three carved pairs of papal keys to St. Peter's and four stacked up papal tiaras. The tiara as it was called, was used to crown popes until Pope Paul VI asked that the wealth be redistributed to the poor in 1964. 

The fountain's a bit overshadowed, literally, by Bernini's colonnades around St. Peter's Square.  Here it is on Streetview, smaller than a gelato stand, ignored unless people are looking to fill a water bottle.

Here's some interesting info on other less well-known famous fountains.