Rome is dotted with fountains – hundreds of them. From monumental to small, the city’s architectural landscape is very much characterized by the presence of ‘fontane,’ which for the past 2,000 years have decorated the squares and provided drinking water.

During the Roman Empire, Rome had eleven aqueducts providing water for 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, in addition to the emperor’s house, private villas and public baths. The aqueducts fell into disrepair after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and it wasn’t until the Renaissance that some of them began being restored. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V ordered the restoration of the Acqua Vergine, which brought clean drinking water from 13 km away.