083 l'acqua vergine

As you know, one of the reasons that Rome was able to flourish in imperial times were the 11 main aquaducts that radiated out from the city center. The water was used for drinking and cooking and bathing in the famous bathhouses.

How times have changed, I thought this morning, as I couldn't coax a single drop of warm water out of the shower. Ice cold. Antartica cold. Yuck.

Water freely runs in hundreds (thousands?) of fountains in Rome. I keep trying to get pictures of dogs drinking the water spurting down, but have not yet been successful because they don't drink for very long.

The typical fountain design is so simple and so ingenious. It's just a curved tube for the water with a small hole in the top. When you want a drink, you plug up the main pipe and higher pressure water arcs out of the top hole.

I had heard that some true Romans still get their drinking water from the city fountains rather from the tap, but I thought this was one of those tourist stories until yesterday - I saw an elderly man in my neighborhood filling up jugs of fountain water to take up to his condominium.

The water in the image above is the Acqua Vergine - virgin water; it is supposedly the best water in Rome. Tasted normal to me. :)