Quartiere Coppedè

This guide to Quartiere Coppedè in Rome traces the decade its architect, Gino Coppedè, spent covering a modest apartment plot with gargoyles, Art Nouveau balconies, Greek columns and Gothic towers after he was commissioned in 1917. You'll hear about his start as a wood-carver's son in Florence, and about two of the quarter's storybook buildings, the Palazzo del Ragno and the House of the Fairies. It follows the neighborhood to the autumn of 1927, when Coppedè died and the Fountain of the Frogs at its center was switched on for the first time.