Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain is the ceremonial terminus of the ancient Acqua Vergine aqueduct, rebuilt in monumental Baroque form between 1732 and 1762 by architect Nicola Salvi on commission from Pope Clement XII. At roughly 26 metres high and 50 metres wide it is the largest fountain in Rome — a theatrical assemblage of travertine and Carrara marble in which Neptune stands atop a shell chariot driven by winged horses and tritons. Salvi died in 1751 before its completion, leaving Giuseppe Pannini to finish the work. Federico Fellini immortalised the fountain in 1960 with the famous bathing scene in La Dolce Vita, cementing its global status. Today the piazza pulses around it day and night: visitors toss coins over their shoulder by the hundreds per hour into the basin — a tradition tied to the Roman legend that doing so guarantees a return to Rome — while floodlights after dark turn the carved marble incandescent.