An extraordinary Baroque fusion of architecture, sculpture and abstracted nature, the Fontana Di Trevi still brings aquatic splendour and drama to the middle of Rome - Delight

Architectural Review, The, Jan, 2003 by Catherine Slessor

Possibly the most famous fountain in the world, Rome's Fontana di Trevi is an urban oasis whose essential functions of supplying the populace with water and providing relief from the City's heat have long been surpassed by its symbolic and metaphorical dimensions. From a labyrinth of alleys glutted with souvenir shops, you are drawn on by the sound of water into a compact piazza dominated by an extravagant Baroque stage set of creamy travertine sluiced by foamy rivulets of plunging spume. A riotous panoply of cavorting sea horses, conch-blowing Tritons, exuberantly modelled rocks and sculptural trees rises in theatrical splendour to meet the facade of the Palazzo Poli above, adorned with the allegorical figures of Abundance and Health. Water cascades in sheets, whipped up by a host of nozzles, spilling from basin to basin, spreading and gaining in volume as it tumbles down each tier, finally gathered and contained into a vast sunken basin. Roughly half the piazza is occupied by the basin, pushing visitors to the edge of a man-made amphitheatre and transforming urban life into a teeming, dramatic spectacle. Scintillating in the sunlight or caught in the flashes of scores of tourist cameras, the aqueous torrents sparkle and shimmer with a mesmerizing intensity. At night the fountain becomes even more magical, pulsating with a soft glow like a giant, implausible candle. Finally completed in 1762, the Trevi was designed by Nicola Salvi, who picked up where Bernini left off, devoting an almost maniacal attention to the form of the scogli, or rocks, clambering over the fountain brandishing a charcoal stick to indicate precisely the shapes his stonecutters should follow. The meltingly fluid scogli and sensuous vegetation soften and harmonize with the regularity of the palazzo above, orchestrating an exquisite unity of sculpture and architecture. Even Ruskin, no great fancier of the Baroque, was moved to declaim 'I got among the mimicked rocks and among the deep pools of this most noble fountain until I fancied myself am ong the gushing torrents of my own Cumberland.' The earlier habit of ensuring return to Rome by drinking from the Trevi has since been replaced by ritual coin throwing, the water now containing unpalatable quantities of bleach.

Celebrated in countless images, stories and films, the Trevi continues to figure prominently in contemporary Roman life, notably as a backdrop for amatory interludes, both real and fictitious. The most memorable of the latter was Anita Ekberg's famous nocturnal dip with Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita. The futility of the liaison between film star and tabloid journalist is symbolized by the fact that just as they are bout to kiss, thigh deep in the basin, the fountain's water is turned off, leaving a poignantly eerie silence and stillness. When Mastroianni die in 1996, the Trevi was again hushed in tribute to his memory.