AlphabeThursday - P is for Piazza Navona

Fontana del Moro

There are more fountains in Rome than any other city in the world.  You can see three, just in the Piazza Navora. We went for a stroll there around dinnertime on our first day in Italy - it was just a few blocks from our hotel, in a residential section of the city.  Located at the southern end of the plaza, the Fontana del Moro represents a Moor (African) standing in a conch shell, wrestling a dolphin, with four "Tritons" sounding horns.  The fountain was originally designed by Giacomo Della Porta in 1575, and the statue of the Moor, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was added in the center in 1653.

a sea nymph in the Fountain of Neptune

On the northern end of the Piazza is the Fountain of Neptune.  The basin of the fountain was designed in 1574 by the same artist who designed the Moor fountain on the other side of the plaza. It was finished out in 1878 by Antonio della Britta, with Neptune fighting an octopus in the center, and by Gregoria Zappala, who created the other sculptures on the fountain, including nereids (sea nymphs) and walruses.    

photo by **Mary**, taken in 2006.  See more of her photographs here

The Piazza Navona used to be a racetrack built by the emperor Domitian around A.D. 80.  Rick Steves remarks, "Since ancient times, the square has been a center of Roman life.  In the 1800s, the city would flood the square to cool off the neighborhood."   It is now a city square that holds many festivals and theater events, and is considered a family spot.  When we were there, street vendors with artwork were throughout the middle of the plaza and there were lots of people walking around the fountains.

Hope you enjoyed another AlphabeThursday tour through Italy.  You can visit other blogs and see what Letter P word they chose, at the link party on Ms. Jenny's blog, ...off on my tangent...