The Trevi Fountain anchors the end of the Acqua Vergine, an aqueduct that has carried water into Rome since nineteen before the common era. Its centerpiece is a massive marble Oceanus, the god of the sea, who rides a shell-shaped chariot…
Piazza Navona Baroque Fountains
Wander through Rome's historic center to explore the city's most spectacular 17th-century water features, from the iconic Trevi Fountain to the theatrical masterpieces of Piazza Navona.
Listen to this tour in the Mira app →
1. Trevi Fountain
2. Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola
The church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola features a ceiling that appears to open directly to the heavens. Andrea Pozzo painted this expansive vault in the late seventeenth century, using precise perspective techniques to trick the eye. He…
3. Fontana del Pantheon
The Fontana del Pantheon features a central marble basin topped by an Egyptian obelisk of red granite, all resting on a high plinth. Giacomo della Porta designed the fountain in fifteen seventy-five, but the obelisk only arrived a century…
4. St. Ivo alla Sapienza
The corkscrew spire of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza twists toward the Roman sky like a stone flame. Francesco Borromini designed this church in the seventeenth century to serve the university students and faculty of the Sapienza. He broke the…
5. Fountain of the Moor
The Fontana del Moro features a central figure of an African man wrestling with a dolphin, surrounded by four tritons carved from marble. Giacomo della Porta designed the original fountain in the sixteenth century, but the dramatic…
6. Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi features a jagged travertine rock base topped by a towering Egyptian obelisk that seems to defy gravity. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed this fountain in sixteen fifty-one for Pope Innocent the Tenth to display…
7. Neptune Fountain
The Neptune Fountain in Piazza Navona is easily spotted by the central marble figure of the sea god grappling with a tentacled octopus. Designed by Antonio della Bitta in eighteen seventy-eight, it completed a long-standing hydraulic…