It has been decided that Rome has plenty to offer tourists such as myself. It would be impossible to see everything that it has to offer, and I am starting to think that the 3 days I planned for us here in Rome was definitely not enough time to squeeze it all in. This could start to get crazy!!
After seeing the Colosseum my sister was really excited to see if we could find the Trevi Fountain. She and my mom had done a little research, OK maybe not so much research but reading of the tourist guide book or I would like to refer it to as the Bible. They had been talking about it earlier and we figured why not, there is so much to see and we have plenty of day left. So we hopped back on the Metro and were on our way to the Trevi Fountain...or so we thought.
The Trevi....wait a second...
We get off our metro stop and climb the stairs out of the underground station. As we come up to the stairs I see a fountain! No way! That was so easy and we didn't get lost. Good idea mom and Mackenzie. The only difficult part now is getting to the central area of the fountain, which with traffic could take some time.
Finally we get across and we start snapping away some pictures. I didn't want to say anything, but this isn't that spectacular of a fountain. In fact it seems rather pathetic that we came all this way for that, but I didn't want to be a debby downer. i was expecting something a little more...exciting.
So we decided we would try to find some other things in the neighborhood so I grab the map quick and I begin to realize that there is no way this could be the fountain based on the coordinates. I grab the "bible" and look what it has to say about the fountain. It desribed it as having several different fountains. I look up to the fountain that we have in front of us. Definitely not multiple fountains. Then it hit me..This is NOT the Trevi Fountain.
It was however the Triton Fountain/Baberini Fountain!
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| Not the Trevi Fountain as previously thought... |
Trevi Fountain
Finally, we made it to the correct fountain, and yes what a difference this fountain made. It was massive and the crowd it attracted was insane. No wonder why so many people made a big deal about this fountain. It made sense now!
The Trevi Fountain came into existence in 1629 when Pople Urban VIII found the previous existing fountain to be lacking of splendour. He then asked Gianlorenzo Bernini to come up with a sketch of something that would be more eye catching. In the end, Nicola Salvi was commissioned by the new pope, Clement XII, who came after the death of pope Urban.
The layout of the fountain(s) can be described as a facade that consists of giant orders of Corinthian pilasters which help link the two stories together. From there the center has a modelled triumphal arch which is superimposed on Palazooo facade which helps to frame the central figure known as Neptune.
Neptune is the god of the sea, so it would be no surprise to find him here. The scene in which he is seated contains him riding a chariot which is being pulled by two seahorses. The seahorses have a particular significance--one is crazy while the other horse is calm, which is in direct relation to the moods of the sea.
Further making this fountain more intense is the inclusion of Abundance and Salubrity. These figure are placed on the left and right of Neptune. All these figures and layout of the figures have been carefully thought out to provide the fountain with balance an symmetry.
It really is a site to see. At first, even before we went to the wrong fountain, I thought this was going to be rather boring. I was pleasantly surprised, it was extremely worth it. I just wish it wasn't so busy in this area, I was constantly being bumped into and kept seeing people with gelato everywhere. Where are they finding these and why can't I have one began to take over my mind. But not too much where I wasn't able to throw in some change and make a wish. I was so glad that we took the time to look up where I was going. I even got me some pistachio gelato...mmm soo good!
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