Trevi Fountain Basin Access and the City of Water Below

Two views of the same water, one from a spot almost nobody stands in and one from underneath the street. The first is the restricted basin area of the Trevi Fountain. Since the access controls came in, the terrace at the water's edge is limited and timed, and this tour includes entry to it. From down there the fountain is no longer a photograph taken over other people's heads: you are level with the water, below the figures, close enough to hear how loud it actually is. The second is Vicus Caprarius, the City of Water, reached by a staircase a few streets away. The excavation cut through Roman buildings and a stretch of road and hit the Aqua Virgo, the aqueduct that has fed this fountain for two thousand years and still does. The masonry is damp because the system never stopped working. The guide covers the engineering as much as the myths, which in this particular case is the more surprising half: an aqueduct built under Augustus is still the reason the fountain runs.