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In Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons”, the main character, followed a frantic and dramatic “path” among the   several obelisks of Rome but this “treasure hunt” could be set even among the fountains of the Italian Capital.  In that case, though, there would have been the difficulty of choosing a few of them because, apart from the about 2000 “nasoni”  (big noses) still working, there are al least 1500 fountans scattered all around the city.

Maybe Shelley, when wrote that “the fountains are enough to justify a trip to Rome “, he did not even thin what the water has always meant in the history of the Eternal City. Since the age of Romolus and Remus, in fact, its inhabitants  filled in  the conquered lands with
waterworks, thermaes and wells, but only in the following centuries the fountains of Rome, especially the monumental ones, became main elements of the city and many famous architects got involved in their designing with different outcomes and successes. If, in fact, Domenico Fontana designed what is maybe the ugliest fountain of Rome, the Fontana del Mosè in San Bernardo square, and if the attempt of moving the two huge stautes of the Dioscuri from the Temple of the Sun to the Square before the Quirinal (Placemark di Google Earth) was a failure, just the Fontana del Mosè was the model for a masterpiece: the Fontanone del Gianicolo, (Placemark di Google Earth)
, built on commission of Pope Paul V. At the beginning, it had five small pools but later it was restored by another Fontana, Carlo, who designed a single, large pool, much more impressive, that today is the “target” of photographers coming from all over the world.

Among the other masterpieces that draw attention and interest there is, then, what is considered the most elegant, proportioned and impressive fountain of the world, Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Fontana del Tritone in Barberini Square (Placemark di Google Earth). In spite of this, the real “genius of the fountains”, was Giacomo Della Porta, the architect who designed the masterpiece located in Colonna square (Placemark di Google Earth), close to Palazzo Chigi, that is chosen by several reporters as the bvackground for their news. The billiant Genuese architect was able to
give his work san incredible charm and an admirable harmony, as you can see in the marvellous Fontana di piazza Ara Coeli, proprio di fronte al Campidoglio (Placemark di Google Earth), or in the fountain of Giudea square, chieseled by Pietro Gucci, moved from its original location and currently placed in via del Progresso.

Even the fountain designed by Della Porta to embellished the large Piazza del Popolo was removed by Valadier in 1823, when he revised the urban planning of the city. The tritons coming from the originalsculpture, now embellish the Fontana del Moro , one of the artworks that you can see in Piazza Navona
(Placemark di Google Earth). In the same square another famous architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was able to express his undisputed elegance by adding to the Fontana delle Tartarughe,  in Mattei square (Placemark di Google Earth), four turtles to Taddeo Landini’s bronze ephebes. This list could go on for pages and pages but, in any case, it would not be able to encompass ALL the masterpieces that you can find along the streets and the squares of the city. Therefore, you have just to walk around Rome hunting for these artworks … hopefully with less worries and dangers than the famous Doctor Langdon !