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8 Facts about the Trevi Fountain

 |  Rolling Rome

8 Interesting facts about the Trevi Fountain, Rome’s and perhaps the world’s most famous and iconic fountain.

  1. The Fountain The Trevi fountain is the biggest baroque fountain in the city of Rome and should not be missed by anyone visiting. Located in a tiny piazza in the heart of the city, this magnificent monument stands the massive 85 feet (26m.) height and 65 ft. (20m.) wide. With its water pumping out of many sources and the large pool in front, the Trevi spills about 2,824,800 cubic feet of water every day.
  2. Aqua Virgo At the sight of the fountain in 19 century BC was built an aqueduct (long canal) bringing water to the people of Rome, by the spring. The aqueduct was named after a young virgin (Aqua Virgo), who revealed the spring to the roman technicians, looking for a pure source of water. This aqueduct provided the population of Rome with fresh water for more than 400 years.
  3. Nicola Salvi and the birth of Trevi Repairs were made 18 century when originally Pope Urban ˅ǀǀ commissioned Bernini with the design of the fountain, but the Pope died and the project was stopped. Years later Pope Clement Xǀǀ, held a contest, which Alessandro Galilei (an architect from the same family as the famous astronomer Galileo), originally won. The commission for the project was later given to Nicola Salvi after a public outcry. The reason for the public’s objections was that Galilei was a Florentine, while Salvi was a native Roman. The design of Salvi won the contest not only for this, but it was also the cheapest one. The project was financed by the Roman Lotto. What is interesting is that it is made of the same material as Colosseum, travertine stone from river Tiber. During the construction a few man actually died because of these enormous stones. Salvi died 10 years before the completion of the fountain in 1762 and never saw his masterpiece.
    1. Trevi as a fashion star Trevi was restored in 1998 and 2014. The famous brand Fendi paid the refurbishing that started 2014 at costs of 2.5 million. On July 2016 they had their catwalk at the fountain, models were walking on the glass, put on the top of the water.
    2. The titan God of the sea The centerpiece, the main figure, is not Neptune. It is Oceanus. Unlike Neptune who would be with a tri fork and a dolphin, Oceanus is accompanied by sea- horses, and Tritons, who are half men, half mermen. One of the horses is restless, representing the rough seas and the other one is obedient, representing the ocean in tranquility. The Triton one on the right side is the son of Neptune, who is blowing into a shell, symbolism visualizing, that he can raise the world’s water into waves or lower them to be calm.
    3. The name Origins of the name are probably coming from an ancient Roman goddess, named Trivia, who was protecting the streets of Rome and was represented always with three heads, making her able to see everything around her. She would always stand on the corner where three streets are meeting. In our case is exactly like this, three roads are meeting on Piazza dei Cruciferi and “Trevi” actually means ‘three ways’.
    4. Magic in the water There is a magic in the water. In the late 19th century , people started to believe that a sip of water from the fountain would ensure a return to Rome. The sip is accompanied by a coin thrown into the fountain, which has pagan origins. The Ancient Romans used to sacrifice a coin into the lakes and rivers to please the Gods and come back safely at home. It is also said that this is an attempt to make the crowd financed the maintenance. Nowadays from the Trevi Fountain are swept every day more than 3,000 euros used for charity. The legend holds that one coin can assure your return to Rome, two stands for falling in love and three are for getting married to Italian. There is also a special way to do it, right hand, left shoulder and never look back. It is a crime to steal the coins from the Trevi. The most famous thief of coins, known by his nickname d’Artagnan was stealing from the fountain for 34 years, and finally, in the summer of 2002, they caught him.
    5. Trevi as a movie star The fountain plays a prominent role in films like ” Three coins in the fountain”, “Roman Holiday” starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Probably the best-known scene is from “La Dolce Vita” with Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. As a matter of fact, the Trevi Fountain was draped in black crepe to honor the actor after his death in 1996.

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