I always sit in the same spot around the fountain---the sun, shade, or wind blowing dirty water from the fountain’s basin never determines my position. I angle myself so as to take part in three different aspects of my surrounding environment, three different time periods all intertwined in one place: the ancient past on my left with the Coliseum, the baroque to my right with the church of Santa Maria dei Monti, and the present directly in front of me with Roman kids playing soccer. The worn marble stairs leading up to the fountain, caked with centuries of soot, offer a coolness, a certain comfort, a familiarity that the iron benches encircling the fountain do not provide. It is here, in this exact place, that I am lost in myself, immersed in the surrounding landscape, at ease and thoroughly happy. The traffic, noise, church bells and bustle almost become muted, blending into a soothing soundtrack inextricable with the landscape.
From my very first visit to Rome over ten years ago, the city has fascinated me. Encompassing the past and the present seamlessly (at times), Rome embodies my interests and passions, the archaeological remains of antiquity coupled with the vibrancy of the modern culture. With each visit, I find myself sitting at the fountain in the Piazza della Madonna dei Monti every day, drawn to the place out of habit, out of comfort, out of contentment. The fountain has become almost personified for me, acquiring the ability to soothe, becoming the place where I feel most myself.
I happened to stumble on the Piazza years ago. After buying gelato from my favorite (and the best) gelato store in Rome, Il Gelatone, I wandered down via dei Serpenti, looking for a place to sit and eat my oversized cone. As I gorged myself on delicious gelato, I was captivated by the beauty of the Roman scene before me: young Italian boys and girls playfully yelling at each other, splashing water from the drinking fountain in front of me (how much more tolerable it is to hear children screaming in a foreign language!); the old Italian man selling fruit out of his corner store to a woman with a broken shopping cart; the bustle of waiters carrying food to the tables in the outdoor restaurant; the doors of a balcony in the apartment building above offering glimpses of an authentic Roman apartment and lifestyle. As I sit on the steps eating my gelato, I feel as if I am the young child playing in the fountain, the woman buying fruit from the old vendor, the customer eating pasta at the restaurant, the dweller in the airy apartment. Rome, this piazza, this particular fountain, identifies who I am.
Looking at the piazza, up Via dei Serpenti, with the Coliseum at your back
Looking at the piazza, facing the church, with via dei Serpenti on the right
