3. Rome, Italy is home to hundreds of fountains, with the oldest being the Trevi Fountain.
Rome has 50 large fountains and a great many small ones, not including the ‘nasoni’, which are small waterspouts used by pedestrians. The Trevi Fountain is more than eighty-six feet high, and comes from an aqueduct originally built in 19 B.C. The fountain was built by Pope Urban VIII in the mid 1600’s. A popular legend states that visitors who throw a coin into the Trevi fountain are assured of a return visit to Rome. The coins are collected weekly; Italian coins go to help pay for upkeep of the fountain, and foreign coins are donated to the Red Cross.
4. Italy stands on a fault line.
Italy is plagued by earthquakes because of this; also, three volcanoes have erupted there in the last one hundred years – Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius.
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