Rome has approximately 2.500 drinking fountains apart from the monumental and ornamental ones; sometimes just simple spouts where the water flows and from where is it possible to drink. The cylindrical metal fountains called “large noses” are famous because the water comes out of their curved steel pipes; these are based on the model of the ones requested by Luigi Pianciani, a noble Garibaldian, first Mayor of Rome, capital of Italy, who wanted to provide public drinking water fountains to the new suburban areas of the city.
Half way between the ornamental fountains and the “large noses” are the local drinking fountains which were commissioned in the fascist era by the first governor of Rome, Filippo Cremonese, to the Roman architect Pietro Lombardi, already a collaborator of Marcello Piacentini, who had won the competition for the construction of the Fountain of Amphoras made in travertine and situated in the Piazza dell’ Emporio in Testaccio, on a small hill which had been made over the centuries by broken amphoras which came from the river port of Ripa Grande.
He was assigned with the construction of these drinking fountains on condition that each one bore the characteristics of the specific area or the local coat of arms. Eight were made between 1926 and 1929.
In addition to the above mentioned Fountain of the Amphoras, The Fountain of Books, in Via degli Staderari, original home to the La Sapienza University, characterised by two couples of books placed either side of a stag’s head, symbol of the district, from which hang two bookmarks where the water flows.
The Fountain of Casks, in Via della Cisterna , an area renowned for its taverns, where water flows from a cask into a basin of must, flanked by two one litre measures of wine; the Tiara Fountain situated between the columns of St. Peter’s Square and the Passetto di Borgo with its three papal keys surmounted by as many papal tiaras; the Fountain of Pine Cones, placed in front of St. Mark’s Basilica near the Vittoriano building in the Piazza Venezia, where two tulip corollas hold a pine cone symbolising the district’s name.
The Fountain of Cannon Balls, situated in Via di Porta Castello, near the military fortress of Castel Sant’Angelo, where water flows from a mask in the centre of a pyramid of bullets; the Fountain of Hills in Via di San Vito ai Monti, reproducing the local coat of arms of the three hills originally part of the district, (Esquilino, Viminale and Celio); the Fountain of Artists in Via Margutta, portrayed by a bucket of paint brushes referring to the artists’ studios in the area; the Fountain of the Helm, where the tiller and helm are portrayed, situated near the San Michele Complex, on the banks of the Tiber in front of the ancient port of Ripa Grande.