A Tourist in Rome - Fountains of the Turtles
Location: | 41.91603, 12.48165 On Viale delle Belle Arti, in front of the National Gallery of Modern Art |
Metro: | Flaminio, you can ride Tram 2 north from there to reduce your walk. |
Time: | about 10 minutes |
Cost: | Free |
Hours: | Viewable at any time |
Don't confuse this with the Fountain (singular) of the Turtles. The two Fountains of the Turtles on Viale delle Belle Arti (Fontane delle Tartarughe) are in front of the National Gallery of Modern Art in the Villa Borghese. They're so-named because of the turtles at the bottom which spew water into the bases of the fountains. I wanted to see them because Respighi referred to them in his Roman Trilogy. They're not much to see nowadays, as you can tell from the photos. In fact, with the size of the plants growing out of the top of the fountain on the left, it looks like no water has flowed from the top of that fountain for quite some time now. But there is a trickle coming out of the turles at the base of the two fountains. Still, not much to see.
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