The Trevi Fountain may be Italy’s most notorious—think of Audrey Hepburn washing her feet in its streams in Roman Holiday and Anita Ekberg’s sultry, evening wear-clad dip in La Dolce Vita—but, at least until Covid cleared the streets of tourists in the city centre, it was almost impossible to view unobstructed except in the single-digit morning hours. And besides, Rome is overflowing with more than 2,000 other fountains whose origins span the ancient to modern eras, underscoring the fundamental role that public water has played in shaping the city. From animal effigies sculpted in stone to storied troughs that gained new status (and looks) through the centuries, here are a few of our favorite places to make a splash.

Fountain of Ludus Magnus

Find it at: Ludus Magnus, Celio area

This rare triangular fountain is located inside the largest gladiatorial school in Rome, Ludus Magnus, where gladiators-in-training would practice, eat, and live while they awaited their battles in the nearby Colosseum. This is the last remaining fountain of an original four, a precious sculptural witness to the school’s ancient layout. You’ll likely encounter the Ludus Magnus en route to the Colosseum, but while in the Celio area you might want to double dip into one of Rome’s most excellent vintage shops, the Vecchia America, for wares that are (almost) as ancient and unique as the fountain itself.

Fontana delle Tartarughe (The Turtle Fountain)

Find it at: Piazza Mattei

Like most of the Italian Renaissance fonts, the Turtle Fountain was created to supply water to the city’s population. Unlike the others, though, this gem was designed by a trio of Italian legends: architect Giacomo della Porta (mastermind of the fountains in the Piazza del Popolo and La Fontana del Moro in the Piazza Navona), the sculptor Taddeo Landini (whose famous copy of Michelangelo’s Risen Christ resides in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence) and Renaissance visionary and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who contributed the bronze turtles around the upper basin in the 1650s. Although some misattribute the exquisitely detailed fountain to Raphael or Michaelangelo, we know one thing for sure: it is best enjoyed while sipping a glass of wine from Il Vinaietto, an enoteca once favored by the 1960s political counterculture, at the corner of Piazza Mattei.

Fontana delle Api (Fountain of the Bees)

Find it at: Piazza Barberini, city centre

While tourists flock to Gian Lorenzo Bernini's iconic Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, another of his luminous works lies slightly off the beaten path. Sculpted in 1644 and located in Piazza Barberini, the Fountain of the Bees is a diminutive marble masterpiece depicting a bi-valve shell with three bees carved into it. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII Barberini, the fountain is a tribute to his family heraldic symbols and also an ode to apian industry, as the flow of water trills like the humming of bees, turning this fountain into a poetic sound sculpture best enjoyed early in the morning before the neighborhood’s own buzzing has begun.

Fontana della Pigna (Pine Cone Fountain)

Find it at: Vatican City