Nasoni, the water fountains of Rome

A Nasoni near the Pantheon, Rome, Italy

The Roman Empire's many achievements in governance, architecture, law, and the arts are well known. But perhaps their greatest engineering marvel is not their great structures like the Colosseum or Circus Maximus, but their system of aqueducts. These aqueducts moved water by gravity throughout the empire and some of the most famous, like the Pont du Gard in present-day France still stands today.

Water, of course, is still vitally important for any city to function. And modern-day Rome keeps it's citizens and visitors hydrated with a system of almost 3,000 nasoni (literally, noses). These drinking fountains constantly circulate cold, clean, delicious water throughout the city. Anyone can fill their water bottle for free at a nasoni so they have water throughout the day. This also cuts down on pollution since people don't have to buy water in plastic bottles which could end up as trash.

If you look at the picture above, you can see the girl getting a drink from the nasoni by plugging a hole at the top of the pipe, causing the water to squirt up like a drinking fountain.

But, it's not all good news for Romans. There has been a severe drought in Italy this year. The olive harvest was way down and very few truffles were found as well. There was talk of water rationing, but that idea was nixed due to public outcry. Instead, about 400 nasoni were turned off.

I looked online, but didn't see any update about turning on the dry nasoni, although the weather has moderated and there was even a rare snow event in Rome last month!

So, if you're planning a trip to Rome, enjoy the fountains (I posted about the Trevi Fountain recently) and enjoy the Nasoni, but if the drought returns, be prepared for the nasoni run dry.

As a final note, I haven't posted extensively about Rome, but I do love the city. There's some very short posts about the city here, here, here, and here.
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