Mar27
Published by Asya in Arts, Europe, Italy, Monuments, Photos, Relaxing, Urban Tourism
The “Fontana di Trevi” or “Trevi Fountain”, may or may not be the most beautiful fountain in Rome but it certainly is the most famous. It is also the largest and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains in Rome. Known the world over as the fountain where Anita Ekberg cooled off at night in Federico Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita, it is also known for the legend that holds that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, your return to Rome will be ensured.
The Trevi Fountain of Rome, realized under the Pontificate of Clemente XII around 1735 after Christ along the “Palazzo Poli”, is the work of the architect Nicol Salvi and it is still nowadays alimented by the water supply system Virgin projected in 19 before Christ by the consul Agrippa. The central figure of the fountain, in front of a large niche, is Neptune, god of the sea. He is riding a chariot in the shape of a shell, pulled by two sea horses. Each sea horse is guided by a Triton. One of the horses is calm and obedient, the other one restive. They symbolize the fluctuating moods of the sea.
In 1629, Pope Urban -8, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died the project was abandoned. Bernini’s lasting contribution was to recite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace . Though Bernini’s project was torn down for Salvi’s fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. In 1732, Pope Clement XII commissioned Nicola Salvi to create a large fountain at the Trevi Square. A previous undertaking to build the fountain after a design by Bernini was halted a century earlier after the death of Pope Urban VIII. Salvi based his theatrical masterpiece on this design. Construction of the monumental baroque fountain was finally completed in 1762.
If you want to stay in a hotel in Rome near Trevi fountain, you don’t have a long list of choices outside of the famous Trevi Fountain Hotel. Offering an exclusive viewpoint of the great fountain that most tourists will never witness. Converted into a hotel in the 17th century, guests at the Trevi Fountain hotel can sit upon the rooftop lounge where the romantic lights of the square burn well into the night.
The bliss of returning to the Eternal City is guaranteed to all foreigners who, with their back turned, throw a coin over their shoulder into the fountain. Before leaving the square be sure to look at the church of Santi Vincenzo ed Anastasio.
The Trevi Fountain is one the tourist highlights of Rome. It takes the Roman fascination with fountains to its extreme in turning a whole facade into a “mere” backdrop for the fountain, which itself extends over half the piazza in front of it.
