Stories in Stone: The Trevi Fountain in Rome

One of my most enduring memories of visiting Rome was seeing the Trevi Fountain for the first time. You almost stumble upon it. Hidden amongst the surrounding buildings, the fountain suddenly appears as you turn a corner, opening up before you in all its enormous marble glory.

It is one of those places that photographs can never quite prepare you for. The scale, the detail and the sheer theatricality of it are something you really need to experience for yourself.

I love old movies, and the Trevi Fountain has appeared in some of cinema's most memorable moments. For a 13-year-old boy, seeing Anita Ekberg step into the fountain fully clothed in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita was rather special. I probably didn't understand the film, but I certainly remembered the fountain (and Anita).

Then there was Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck and that little Vespa buzzing through the streets of Rome were instrumental in my lifelong love of two wheels.

And Three Coins in the Fountain, the 1954 film which helped popularise the tradition of throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain, accompanied by the familiar belief that doing so ensures you will one day return to Rome.

Side note: I am old, but not old enough to remember these films when they were first released. But growing up in London I went to the British Film Institute many times, where you could see old black and white movies on the big screen. Much more impressive than a small screen television on a Sunday afternoon. It was there that I saw Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai for the first time, which remains one of my favourite ever movies (but that is a conversation for another time).

Today, visitors throw an extraordinary amount of money into the water. The coins are collected and donated to charity, helping people in need in Rome. The fountain is regularly cleared of the accumulated coins, which, unsurprisingly, have proved tempting to more than a few would-be thieves over the years.

Behind the fountain stands the magnificent Palazzo Poli. Although the building has a much longer and rather complicated history, the section facing the fountain was incorporated into the palace in the 18th century. Today it forms part of the National Institute of Graphics, but for me it serves a very different purpose. It provides the enormous architectural backdrop that makes the fountain feel even more imposing.

The Trevi Fountain itself was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762. It stands at the end of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct, an astonishing piece of Roman engineering constructed in 19 BC. The aqueduct brought fresh water into ancient Rome, supplying public baths, fountains and other parts of the city. More than 2,000 years later, the fountain still receives water from the same ancient aqueduct, although today the water is recycled rather than continually flowing from the original source.

The name Trevi is commonly associated with Tre Vie, meaning "three roads", referring to the three streets that meet at the fountain.

For a long time, I assumed the imposing figure at the centre was Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. It turns out I was wrong. The figure is actually Oceanus, the ancient Greek personification of the great body of water believed to surround the world.

Oceanus stands in a triumphal arch, riding in a shell-shaped chariot pulled by two sea horses. The horses are deliberately different. One is calm and obedient while the other is wild and restless, representing the contrasting moods of the sea. It is a wonderfully theatrical piece of symbolism, and one of the details that makes the fountain much more than simply an enormous collection of beautifully carved marble.

And this is what I find so rewarding about drawing buildings and monuments like the Trevi Fountain. From a distance, it is an instantly recognisable landmark. A huge Baroque fountain in the middle of Rome. But the closer you look, the more there is to discover.

Every figure, horse, column and carving has a story. The architecture behind it has its own history. The water has been flowing through an aqueduct that was already ancient when the fountain was built. And somewhere along the way, the Trevi Fountain became part of the history of cinema and, for millions of visitors, part of their own personal memories of Rome.

That was what I wanted to capture in this drawing. Not simply the famous fountain itself, but some of the extraordinary history, architecture and stories hidden within it. Because sometimes the most interesting part of drawing a landmark is discovering just how much more there is to it than meets the eye.