Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Fontana delle Tartarughe



This fountain appears in Donald Windham's Two People. As there, on my first visit to Rome I happened upon it, knowing nothing about it — a wonderful surprise! I can't remember whether it was then that I fell in love with Rome, but it could not have been afterwards.

P.S. At our discussion some one remarked on how little description of places in Rome there is in this novel whose spine seems to consists of an interleaving list of Roman bus stops. One exception certainly is this fountain, which is described first when Marcello passes by it on his way to school and then near the end when Forrest comes upon it with "wild surmise".

1 comment:

Tim said...

As a curious footnote to this post and tribute to the power of Google Maps I mention what I believe is the only unnamed place of Rome in Two People: "the narrow street that led off the piazza" Navona (p. 8). This is the Via della Cuccagna, which was probably on no maps of Windham's and certainly on none of mine. It's not on Google Maps either but using Street View you can spot it (pan and zoom in). Oh marvelous Uniform Resource Locator!