Catching, channelling, preserving and redistributing the water, the "gift of the divinities", meant for Rome to become an advanced metropolis.

4 hours - walking tour / by public transportation

One of the remarkable peculiarities of Rome is the abundance of water. Natural springs, that could not flow into the Tiber because of the waterproof clayish layer widely spreading under the city, came out of the ground originating creeks and ponds.

Emperors first and popes from the XVI century on competed to provide the city and their mansions and gardens with large amounts of water collected far away. The ruins of two aqueducts are still visible at Porta Maggiore  and their branches keep on stretching through the neighborhood, once supplying main cisterns or sometimes the nymphaea,  gorgeous shows of water. From the outstanding arrangements, rich in carvings and sculptures, like the Fountain of the Four Rivers or the Fontana del Tritone by Bernini or the Art Nouveau Fountain of the Naiads (the water nymphs)  to the late XV century, delicate Fountain of the Turtles by Taddeo Landini, to end with the humble, iron, cylindrical-shaped drinking fountains scattered here and there in the XX century: everywhere in Rome is an abundance of water.