Fontana delle Tartarughe - Turtle's Fountain

A jewel inside the Jewish Ghetto. A fountain by Giacono della Porta commissioned by the Mattei family, then adorned by bronze sculptures (turtles, dolphins and Pans).

The piazza is named after the Mattei family, one of the most powerful families in Rome during the Renaissance.this fountain was built indeed, by the Mattei family.
There is a nice story about the construction of this fountain.

Four ephebes (adolescent boys) cavort around the base of one of Rome's loveliest fountains, gently hoisting tortoises up to the waters above them.

According to legend, Giacomo della Porta and Taddeo Landini built the fountain for the Duke of Mattei at some point in the 1580s. The duke, so

the story goes, had lost all his money and hence his fiancée, and wanted to prove to her father that he could still achieve great things. He had the fountain built overnight in the square outside his family palazzo (you can wander freely into the classical, carving-clad courtyard of the palazzo, now home to an American studies centre); the next morning he triumphantly displayed his

accomplishment from a palace window.

The wedding was on again, but he had the window walled up, and so it remains. The turtles were

probably an afterthought, added by Bernini during a restoration.

The ones there today are copies: three of the originals are now in the Capitoline museums; the fourth was stolen and presumably graces some private fountain.

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A stroll on Ponte Sisto.

The best way to soak up the city — and to find some of the quainter (and more affordable) shops — is to zig-zag from vicolo to vicolo (alley), piazza to piazza.

For a good two-hour stroll, start at the bustling Piazza Navona, then head south through Campo dei Fiori, where you'll find cafés and daily food and flower markets, to the beguiling Piazza Farnese, with its pair of fountains and Renaissance palace.

From there, continue toward Ponte Sisto. The ponte (bridge) offers a great perspective on the beauty of Rome, with the Gianicolo hill rising to the west and St. Peter's Basilica to the north. Cross the Tiber to arrive in the utterly charming Trastevere neighborhood, where laundry swings overhead and flowers burst from window boxes.

The current bridge was built by Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1479 as a replacement of a prior Roman bridge named Pons Aurelius.

The bridge is architecturally characteristic because of its central circular "eye".

It connects the popular night-life areas near Campo de' Fiori and Trastevere and has become part of popular culture and recently featured in films, music videos, and adverts.

The Ponte Sisto connects the lively and Popular Piazza Trilussa in Trastevere, where many young Romans gather for an apperitivo on a Friday night, with the via Pettinary and via Giulia in Campo Marte.

On the corner of via Pettinari and via Giulia once stood a fountain, a work

of the Acqua Paola Aqueduct, the water of which was brought over the bridge from the Transtiberim to the Campo Marte via Ponte Sisto.

After the Unification of Italy in 1870, the buildings surrounding this fountain were destroyed, and the fountain itself relocated to Piazza Trilussa on the other side of the bridge, where it delivers water to this day.

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Galleria Borghese, the Museum.

They say the best museum in Rome is the city itself. That may be so, but the Galleria Borghese is still a gem worth seeing.
Its collections are housed in a magnificent 17th-century villa and offer a compact course in the Italian aesthetic. In just 20 rooms, you are exposed to antiquities, the Renaissance and the beginnings of baroque art.

Visits to the Galleria in the northeast corner of the sprawling

Villa Borghese park are by reservation, which allows you the pleasure of seeing the Bernini sculptures from every angle without being crowded out.

Many believe that its sculptures, which include works by Bernini (including his sculpture David) and Canova, make the Borghese a must for those interested in art and history. Other works by Titian, Correggio, Raphael, Canova, Bassona and Rubens add

to the glory of the Borghese.

Reservations are required for the Gallery and can be made

online with this website.

For additional information on the Borghese, follow this link the

Gallery's official website. The Borghese Gallery and Museum is located at Piazzale del Museo Borghese 5 in Borghese Park and is open Tuesdays through Sunday.

While the Villa is a focus for many, the Villa Borghese Park is one of the largest in Rome and a pleasant respite from the activity of the city (sometimes it feels like the word "eternal" in Eternal City refers to its never ending traffic and noise). Offering beautiful monuments, landscaped lakes, dramatic fountains and manicured Old-World style gardens, the Borghese Park is an excellent place for a relaxing walk.

The Villa is remote from the Metro (the Piazza di Spagna stop is the closest). Although the walk is long, the park is a great place for a stroll. (Look at our museums map in Hybrid View to see the park

and the Gallery.) Many prefer to walk to the Borghese (from the Piazza Popolo or the Spanish Steps) and take a taxi for the return to their hotel.

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