A Rare Peek at the Hidden Waterworks behind Rome’s Trevi Fountain

A view of Rome's Trevi fountain is seen through a window of its old water flow control room, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP)
A view of Rome's Trevi fountain is seen through a window of its old water flow control room, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP)
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A Rare Peek at the Hidden Waterworks behind Rome’s Trevi Fountain

A view of Rome's Trevi fountain is seen through a window of its old water flow control room, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP)
A view of Rome's Trevi fountain is seen through a window of its old water flow control room, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP)

The Trevi Fountain, arguably the world’s most famous, has graced screens for decades, from Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” to Netflix’s “Emily in Paris.” Each year, millions of visitors push through Rome's narrow streets to gaze at the towering Titan god flanked by falls cascading into a turquoise pool.

Yet, they never get to venture behind Oceanus’ back to see what produces the sublime play of water in the baroque masterpiece.

Wooden doors on an adjacent street lead to the maneuvering chambers that control the fountain's water supply, coming from the Aqua Virgo — an ancient Roman aqueduct 16 kilometers (10 miles) away. Two electric pumps recycle 126 liters (33 gallons) of water per second while Rome’s water management company, ACEA, carefully monitors the flow around the clock.

This precise amount is crucial for the movement of water through the statues; a little more or less, and it wouldn’t work, said Davide D’Alonzo, ACEA’s manager for the area.

The modern maneuvering chamber features metal tanks and lighted panels. In the original, arched chamber, water audibly rushes through a thick pipe and there is a functional, 18th-century hydrometer to gauge the fountain’s water level.

A large, rudimentary spreadsheet on the wall displays the names of rich Roman families whose homes received water from the chamber long ago; when they fell behind on their payments, their supply was cut off.

The chamber's grated windows grant views out over the fountain and its many visitors — all of whom are oblivious to its hidden waterworks. They toss coins over their shoulders into the water, a hopeful gesture based on a legend that it guarantees their return to the eternal city.



Trump Says Columbus Day Will Now Just Be Columbus Day 

President Joe Biden hands a pen to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as he signs a proclamation on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2021. (AP)
President Joe Biden hands a pen to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as he signs a proclamation on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2021. (AP)
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Trump Says Columbus Day Will Now Just Be Columbus Day 

President Joe Biden hands a pen to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as he signs a proclamation on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2021. (AP)
President Joe Biden hands a pen to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as he signs a proclamation on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington, Oct. 8, 2021. (AP)

President Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he would not follow his predecessor's practice of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day in October, accusing Democrats of denigrating the explorer's legacy as he pressed his campaign to restore what he argues are traditional American icons.

Democrat Joe Biden was the first president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day, issuing a proclamation in 2021 that celebrated “the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples” and recognize “their inherent sovereignty.”

The proclamation noted that America “was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people” but that promise “we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began.”

Trump on Sunday used a social media post to declare, “I'm bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes.” He said on his Truth Social site that “the Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.”

The federal holiday, the second Monday in October, was still known as Columbus Day during Biden's term, but also as Indigenous Peoples Day. That's been a longtime goal of activists who wanted to shift the focus from commemorating Columbus' navigation to the Americas to his and his successors' exploitation of the indigenous people he encountered there.

Though Trump has long objected to telling the country's history through a lens of diversity and oppression, the holiday he seeks to restore to its primacy was added to the calendar as a nod to the country's growing diversity.

Columbus’ expeditions never landed on the North American mainland, let alone any of the places that would become the 50 states. But the native of Genoa became increasingly commemorated in the United States as Italian immigrants flocked to the country and politicians sought to win their support.

Indeed, it was the lynching of 11 Italian-American immigrants in New Orleans in 1891 that led to the first Columbus Day celebration in the United States, led the following year by President Benjamin Harrison. President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated Columbus Day as a national holiday in 1934.

Trump has long complained about Democrats tearing down statues of Columbus, a complaint he made again in Sunday's post. In 2017, he spoke out against a review of the 76-foot-tall statue of the explorer in New York's Columbus Circle that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had ordered. It remains in place today, but other statues have been defaced or torn down.

In 2020, Trump's administration paid to restore a Columbus statue in Baltimore that was dumped in the harbor during protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.