Doesn't Rome have over 280 fountains? Did a google and found tons of great pictures. Like most visitors, I was impressed and delighted by the major fountains listed below. Would like to like to visit new ones on the next trip. What are your favorite ones?

The Leaky Boat - Piazza Spagna

Trevi Fountain

Fountain of the Moors - Piazza Navona

Pantheon Fountain - Piazza della Rotunda

Fountain del Tritone - Piazza Barberini

The "Fontanella" in Via Lata.

Visit the Piazza del Collegio Romano, which hosts one of Rome's best high schools, a building that dates from the 16th century.

Then exit toward the Via del Corso and find the beautiful drinking fountain on the left. Take a drink of some of the finest water on the planet, courtesy of the vast network of volcanic underground springs under Rome.

Historically, the fountain in the Piazza del Quirinale.
The two colossal statues (Dioscuri) are of Castor and Pollux standing by their horses.
They originally stood at the Baths of Constantine and are Roman copies of the 5C BC Greek originals.
The oblisk is from the Mausoleum of Augustus.
The basin is from the Roman Forum and was part of a fountain in front of or very nearby the Senate House (Curia). It latter times it was used as a cattle-trough. Regards, Walter

Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona!!!

A must see!!!

The fountain at the centre of Piazza Esedra. When it works and on a sunny day it is really awesome, I always stop to admire it!

Some more fountains;

La Barcaccia, Piazza di Spagna,
sculptured by the Berninis( Father and son)..

Fountain of the Turtle, Jewish Ghetto

Le Quattro Fontane

Fountain of Naiads, Piazza Esedra
These are only few of the many beautiful fountains that adorn the Eternal city.

I stumbled across a picture of an interesting sight: Bernini's Elephant in Piazza Minerva.

ttt

Any rants or raves about the ones identified in this thread or additional ones?

Any websites to explore this subject further?

I haven't seen all 280 fountains but the ones Vivaldi named are my favorites too. I'd say any Roman fountain would be my favorite.
When it's a hot, sunny, blue sky day, they look so beautiful!

Okay, you know this would have to be my fave:

Fontana dei Libri (Fountain of the Books), located on via Staderari between piazza della Rotonda and Piazza Navona on the side of Chiesa Sant'Eustachio

I mean, it's BOOKS, folks, you know I'm there like sleeves in a coat!

For a close runner-up, I chose a fountain in Parco Borghese that I photographed on my last trip:

Fontana dei Cavalli Marini (Seahorses) (1791) located at the Villa Borghese.

This fountain was absolutely gorgeous on a warm spring day!

Here's a good site to find and identify fountains:

http://www.stuardtclarkesrome.com/fountains.htm

Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona, also my favorite Piazza so far from my short visit there.

This goes along with the churches in Rome theme, huh? Everything in Rome. Anyway, since I love Rome, I'm happy to comply:

one of my favorite fountains is Bernini's in Piazza Barberini. It's Neptune coming out of the water and, perched upon shells with his head up, spouting water through a shell above him. (here's a link to a picture of it: http://www.stpauls.it/gio97/4997gi/images/4997gi04.jpg) It's right down Via Veneto, and, while it's always in the midst of swarms of traffic, it's a wonderfully refreshing site, the merman showering himself in fountain water, always keeping cool even on the hottest days .

Oh, and of course I still love the Trevi. I can't seem to get over it, even after so many trips to bella Roma.

ChatNoir:

great link! Thanks!

bookchick: I saw the book fountain in one of the pictures on the link ChatNoir posted, but I have yet to see it in person. What a great find! I'll have to seek it out next time!

Thanks!
Jackie

Jackie_in_Italy, thanks for the input.

Easy to see I've got an upcoming trip to Rome this fall. Looking to do more off-the-beaten-path stuff. Churches and fountains are my favorite things to see.

ChatNoir:

You'll have an easy-enough time finding "off-the-beaten-path" locations in Rome. The fountains and churches are great places to start. If you are interested in a good book (albeit long) about Rome, consider A Traveller in Rome by H.V. Morton. It's sort of a mix of guide book/history book. I'm reading it now, and I really enjoy it. H.V. Morton got to see all of these hidden parts of Rome, and he talks about them in enthusiastic detail.

(check out my blog entry about it, if you are interested: http://www.thelongtriphome.com/travelblog/ )

-Jackie

For THE most detailed guide book to the art and architecture of Rome, try to find a copy of Georgina Masson's "A Companion Guide to Rome." First published in 1965, I think it is now out of print, but you should be able to find it at one of the used-book places on the Web: abebooks.com, powells.com, etc.

Some of the information is inevitably outdated: the statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Campidoglio is now a copy, while the original is in one of the Musei Capitolini; Michelangelo's Pieta in Saint Peter's is now behind plexiglass and one can only get, at a guess, to within about 200 feet of it (ever since a lunatic went at it with a sledgehammer in the 70s), but for basic and thorough information, I have never found anything better than Masson's book and still take it with me religiously.

H.V. Morton's book is interesting (also first published in the 60s, I think), but as a Brit, he has an unfortunate tendency to relate everything he sees to British history: Half his description of Saint Peter's Basilica seems to be about the Catholic Stuarts buried there.

Eloise:

You are definitely right about Morton's tendency to relate everything to the Brits. Half of those sections I've wanted to skip over, but it's all worth it for his detailed and loving description of the forum.

The Masson's book sounds interesting. I'll check it out if I can get my hands on a copy.

Morton also wrote an illustrated book just on this subject "The Fountains of Rome." I'd imagine it's out of print; I borrowed it from a library.

The Masson book has been my faithful Rome companion for years, ever since my first trip there. It gets revised every once in a while (updating the practicalities while maintaining most of Masson's text) and then goes out of print, but the good news is that it seems to be getting revised more often, so it's out of print less. I think it was revised just last year, so that should still be available.

(Not that I'm obsessive, but I have a little cache of 2 old copies that I've found at used bookstores, in case my current copy gets worn out.)