Trevi Fountain

This guide to the Trevi Fountain in Rome follows Nicola Salvi, a little-known thirty-three-year-old architect handed the commission in 1730 after Rome refused to let a Florentine rival build its grandest fountain. You'll hear how he spent nineteen years working in the damp tunnels of the ancient aqueduct that still feeds the basin, and about a small carved vase he added purely to block a barber's sign from his view. Look for that vase on the right side of the balustrade as you listen.