Tra i Pini di Roma e variazioni: IN ROME THE SMALL FOUNTAINS TELL ABOUT THE STORY OF ROME

in italiano http://traipinidiroma.blogspot.it/2014/04/a-roma-le-fontanelle-raccontano-roma.html

WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN ROME

When you arrive in Rome, in addition to the centuries-old pine trees, the first town residents that you can meet are the small fountains.

Small drinking fountains in every corner of the city tell about Rome, each in its own way.

Rome owes his life to the fountains, that they are always been a great resource.

The beginning there was only the Tiber River that bathed the fields, that was a defensive barrier and it was the "road" that enabled Rome to be in touch with the Mediterranean world.

Then the Aqueducts came and the Appius aqueduct was created, the first of a long sequence: 16 km long, built 312 years before Christ was born.

But the water in every corner of the city has always been insured by the small fountains and thanks to the abundance of water that Rome was called the "regina aquarum", the "Queen of Water".

The "father" of archeology, Rodolfo Lanciani emphasized this abundance of water: in addition to the thermae, ancient Rome had 212 fountains that were fed by 11 aqueducts next to 247 storage tanks which guaranteed 1 billion liters per day of drinking water clear and fresh.

THE WATER "FLEW" ACROSS THE CITY

The water "flew" across the city by bridges and viaducts, and even today you can see them in the Appia Antica Park or embedded inside buildings in the city center a short walk from Largo di Torre Argentina. These engineering tools were in fact necessary to overcome differences in height of the water in a city grown among its Seven Hills.

The aqueducts and the small fountains speak to you again, and each has a different story to tell in a city like Rome, which has fountains more than any other city: someone says that here there are 2000 and others say up to 2500.

THE "NASONI"

But what is certain is that Rome is unique in having the "nasoni", i.e. “big noses”.

an example of "nasone"

Luigi Pianciani, the first mayor of the city, decided their construction and this name derived from the curved metal tube, which gives them the appearance of small dwarfs.

In the hot summer afternoons, indeed, they are there to look at you smiling while you catapult with empty bottle in search of water!

Their identikit is this: 1 meter and 10 centimeters high; the nose is 62 cm long, 100 kilo weigh and they are of cast iron.

BUT A NEW GENERATION OF SMALL FOUNTAINS

But a new generation of small drinking fountains begins to live since the 20’s of the XX century. The young Pietro Lombardi, just 31 years old, graduated in architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Via Ripetta, won the national competition to built a fountain in Testaccio.

Lombardi was inspired by "Monte dei Cocci" and invented a fountain composed of many amphorae, evoking an indian pagoda.

But above all, this fountain tells about the era in which it was born: the search for a linear and stylized dimension, in the city that was the capital of the overabundance and theatrical Baroque.

The idea was entirely successful, and it's still there, in Piazza dell’ Emporio.

Piazza dell'Emporio

The following year, on a proposal from the Superintendent, Lombardi was entrusted with the implementation of other fountains, in which the characteristics of the place had to be present in the compositional elements.

And so these fountains offer you a wealth of suggestions and they tell about Rome in its traits most essential and true.

The Barrel in Via della Cisterna, to remember the many taverns in the area; the fountain of the Tiaras, close to the colonnade of St. Peter's Square, with its three papal keys surmounted by popes tiaras; the Books in Via degli Staderari, close to an ancient library; the fountain of Pigna in front of Piazza Venezia, in which two blooms of tulips support the pinecone, symbolizing the name of the ward; the fountain of Cannonballs, in Via di Porta Castello, near the military fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo; the fountain of the Helm, close to the complex of San Michele, to evoke the ancient harbor of Ripa Grande on the banks of the Tiber River; and, in Via Margutta, the fountain of Arts where brushes and colors symbolize the painters and sculptors who, as always, crowding Rome.