My tours of Rome visit Trevi Fountain

MY TOURS OF ROME VISIT TREVI FOUNTAIN

If you have decided to book your hotel in Rome near the spanish steps or the Trevi fountain, we can start a walking tour of the ancient Rome from the most famous fountain in the world.

The Trevi fountain ranks as the most joyous site in Rome.

Built from 1732 to 1762 under the patronage of popes Clement XII,and Benedict XIV, the great scenographic water display is often described as the glorious capstone of the baroque era, even if the fountain belongs to the new classical period.
The history of Trevi fountain reaches back to antiquity. The waters that feed the founatin today flow through the Aqua Virgo aqueduct originally constructed by Agrippa in 19 BC. The aqueduct passes mostly underground and was obstructed in the Middle ages to prevent barbarian infiltration, so it was easily repaired in the Renaissance period.
All the major artists of that time working in Rome for the popes were engaged in competition with ideas for a fountain. With Clement's own favored Florentine architect, Galilei, already loaded up with projects, the pope took this opportunity to calm waters over the Lateran competition and Nicola Salvi, architect of Rome, was awarded the commission in 1732.

Salvi was endowed with a remarkably broad education in literary and artistic culture that earned him positions in a range of roman intellectual society, including the " Virtuosi del Pantheon", a sort of well rounded genious club that met in the temple.

The Trevi fountain is an architectural, sculptural and aquatic performance that spills off the flank of a pre- existing palace into a low, irregular piazza. The figure of the Ocean ( Neptune ) on an oystershell chariot rides outward and gestures commandingly to Tritons and their sea horses in the churning water below.

The water rushes it at eye level on the piazza across the cascade of rough travertine blocks tumbling down from the palace's rustication into a deep-set pool.The sculptures were contracted to various artists who despite their legal potests were forced to subordinate their work to Salvi's commanding architectural scansion.

The classical allegory is the basis here of a contemporary program wanted by the popes:

At Levi, Christ turned water into wine; at Trevi Clement XII turned wine into water.

In fact the the construction of the fountain was financed with the proceeds from the lottery and tax on wine.
In Trevi fountain the water has taken center stage in an engaging spectacle of cascading forms.

Let us be attracted by the splashing sounds of Trevi Fountain

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