
15/08/2025
Childhood memories around the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola
There was a time when Roman summers tasted of simple anticipation, play, and a collective innocence renewed each year beneath the warm Gianicolo sun.
The Fontana dell’Acqua Paola, with its majestic marble façade and rushing waters, was the liquid heart of a small world: families living along the winding, quiet streets of the neighborhood, far from the bustle of the seaside.
More than fifty years ago, when the air buzzed with cicadas and the heat seemed to melt even your thoughts, those who couldn’t afford a vacation on the coast found relief right there, at the foot of the Fontanone. This was especially true around Ferragosto, when the city was left almost completely deserted.
The fountain became a kind of urban beach: mothers and fathers, brought their children to dip their feet, hands, sometimes their whole bodies into the white, foaming waves gathering in the large basin.
Those who could swim ventured beyond the edge, daring the thrill of the cold, while the younger ones were content to splash and chase one another, inventing worlds suspended among the waves.
There were unwritten rules: respect for the elderly ladies who came to find relief from the heat, sharing a stuffed sandwich that satisfied more than hunger, the quiet solidarity among those who stayed in Rome, weaving a fabric of friendships that time might dissolve, but never completely erase.
The fountain, imposing and generous, thus became the sea for those who couldn’t afford the real one. The sound of the water was the soundtrack to whispered stories, promises of games, and summer friendships.
And as the sun set over the hill and parents called their children home, the fresh taste of water lingered on their lips and the reflection of a summer lived in one breath remained in their eyes, at the foot of the stone queen of the Gianicolo: the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola.
This is just one of the many personal stories our guiding drivers could add to the official history of the monuments.
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