Thursday, May 28, 2009

Walk This Way

Today for class we paired up and each picked a fountain in Rome to lead our class to. We started at the church, Santa Maria in Trastevere at that fountain. The first fountain we visited was Fontana dell’Acqua Paola. This fountain commemorates the reopening of an aqueduct in 1612. Generations of Romans bathed and washed their vegetables in this fresh water fountain despite many laws against it. It was on top of Janiculum Hill and was quite a hike to get there but the fountain was beautiful, as was the view.

We then went to the Piazza della Bocca della Veritá Fountain which was right across from the Bocca della Veritá, the Mouth of Truth. Legend has it that if you put your hand in the mouth, the jaws would snap shut over the hands of those that told lies. No jaws snapped down on my hand!

Joe and I then led the class to the Fontana delle Tartarughe, fountain of the tortoises. It was built between 1581 and 1588 and displays 4 youths resting a foot on the head of a dolphin. The tortoises were added by an unknown sculptor nearly a century later.

*Added information from DK Eyewitness Guide to Rome

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