Rome and the Water

Rome and water have always had an indissoluble bond, since the founding act of the city whose well-known history is deeply connected to the Tiber. Its waters, according to legend, saved Romulus and Remus by calmly leading them towards the she-wolf. According to historiographical sources, the original nucleus of the city developed in its valley.
The river with its water was enough to quench the thirst of an ever-expanding city for over four centuries and was venerated as a father and as a god, the Pater Tiberinus, to whom a temple on the Tiber island and a cult festival, the Tiberinalia, were dedicated. Other divinities linked to water were venerated in archaic Rome, the Nymphs, near the numerous springs of bulicante waters, sulphurous waters which therefore boiled, coming from the volcanic area of ​​the Alban Hills and appreciated for their healing power.

Roma regina aquarum

But the great abundance of water would only arrive in Rome with the first aqueducts, starting from 312 BC. After six centuries there will be eleven of them, which constituted the most complex and vast water system that the city had ever known at the time. Coming from sources even several tens of miles away, piercing the mountains and crossing the valleys, these aqueducts with their imposing arches, which sometimes reached 30 metres, brought such a quantity of water into the City "that rivers flowed through the city", according to what Strabo wrote in his Geography, and every citizen could have access to a greater quantity of water than a modern Roman. It is no coincidence that Rome was known at the time as Regina Aquarum.

The water that reached the city followed various routes. One part fed the immense public baths where all the Romans could go to wash, relax and socialise, and an almost infinite quantity of public baths. Another part went to the public fountains, more than a thousand of which were scattered along the city streets: it was the water that the people drew from to drink and use at home, in the kitchen, in the shops, since there was no running water. The latter, however, was provided in the imperial palaces and in the homes of some patricians, who paid a tax on the water. The rest of the water fed swimming pools, monumental fountains, gardens, nymphaeums, artificial lakes and, lastly, the naumachie, the grandiose simulations of historic naval battles within large natural or artificial basins, or even circuses, amphitheatres and theaters flooded for the occasion.

But the water cycle did not end here, after use it continued to flow into underground pipes which collected the now used and dirty water, combining it with the rainwater which cleaned the streets, and together they flowed into large collectors, such as the famous Cloaca Maxima which ended up in the Tiber.

The return to the Tiber in the Middle Ages

The decline of the Empire compromised the very existence of the aqueducts. The Goths, who repeatedly besieged Rome in the 6th century, cut them in order to thirst the population while the besieged Romans walled up the outlets to avoid the penetration of the besiegers. It so happened that throughout the Middle Ages the small remaining population came down from the hills and returned to supply itself with water from the Tiber.

The ancient aquariums or aquariums, active in pre-aqueduct Rome, returned to the scene and also took the name of acquarenari, acquaricciari or acquamaccari which took water from the Milvian Bridge, filtering it and filling barrels and cups, loaded it onto donkeys or mules and took it around the city or to homes, selling it.

The water of the Tiber, unlike what we might think today, was considered very good and healthy. When Pope Clement VII Medici solemnly went to Marseille in 1533 to see the Duke of Orleans, he brought with him a quantity of water from the Tiber that could suffice him until his return, so as not to be forced to drink worse water.

Water flows again and is central to the urban and architectural redevelopment of papal Rome

Only in the 16th century did the great urban works begin, on the initiative of the popes, which, thanks to the restoration of the old aqueducts and the construction of new ones, once again provided the city with abundant water resources.

Water thus became the raw material for the imagination of sculptors and architects and returned to resonate in new fountains which became one of the most evocative celebrations of papal power. The city thus began to fill with fountains, basins, exhibitions, fountains, troughs in a sort of competition between pontiffs, religious orders and noble Roman families to see who would commission the so-called fountain makers to produce the most wonderful work.

“The fountains are enough to justify a trip to Rome” wrote the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. And in fact in the capital there are more than two thousand fountains, some large and spectacular in the center of squares - such as that of Trevi, of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, the Barcaccia in Piazza di Spagna, that of the Naiads in Piazza della Repubblica, of the Acqua Paola on the Gianicolo - others small and discreet placed in forgotten corners or now often hidden behind parked cars.

The smaller (but no less fascinating) fountains

In the 1920s, the so-called neighborhood fountains appeared, created by the architect Pietro Lombardi: small works of art that recall the symbols and peculiarities of the ancient districts of Rome. The barrel to indicate the taverns of Trastevere, the books to represent the presence of the University building in the Sant'Eustachio district, the rudder the old port of Ripa Grande, the cannonballs the nearby fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo, the artists for Via Margutta, the amphorae for Testaccio.

In the union between Rome and water, the two thousand "nasoni" (friendlyly called "big nose" by the Romans due to their particular shape), the cylindrical cast iron fountains, should not be forgotten. Thus they were nicknamed for their curious curved cinnamon which resembles a large aquiline nose. They were born in 1874 on the initiative of councilor Rinazzi, who had about twenty of them installed, some of which are still in their place. Remaining almost unchanged for almost one hundred and fifty years, they too are part of the thousand-year history of water in Rome, and now represent a peculiar and at the same time familiar element of the city's street furniture.

Straight to the source

Rome, therefore, can still define itself as the queen of water, especially if we take into account that in a year it is supplied with almost 500 million cubic meters of water, considered among the best in Italy for quality and purity, and almost all of which comes from sources well protected from any form of pollution.

The water that comes out of the taps is safe and tastes good, while those who cannot give up mineral water have the opportunity to take it directly from the source, as - to give just a few examples - in the case of Egeria water in the Cappellolla Valley and Acqua Sacra in the Montesacro district, filling their bottles with dozens of spouts distinguished between natural and slightly sparkling.