Why do the public fountains in Italy flow all the time?

Inspiration

Each time I’ve been to a city in Italy, there are public fountains on the streets with constantly flowing water. My gut reaction is that this is wasteful of valuable drinking water.

My guess before digging in

Maybe this came about during the Black Plague, or for other reasons that might prevent the build up of bacteria in stagnant water.

Findings

• The page I found first says that the fountains are called nasone, or plural nasoni, and that they’re only in Rome. Maybe they’re not in more cities. They’re also known as fontanelle.
• They were first introduced in the early 1870s.
• Aside from offering free water, they also prevent water from stagnating in the pipes.
• The fountains were turned off in 2007 during a severe drought.
• There were around 5,000 at the peak of their popularity. Now there are around 2,500 to 2,800.

Source: Wanted in Rome (opens in a new tab)

Etymology

• Nasone means “large nose” because the curved metal spout resembles a nose.
• Fontanelle means “little fountains”.

Follow-up questions

• “In addition, constantly flowing water keeps the water in the pipes from stagnating, which might otherwise allow bacteria to proliferate”
• While this has been criticized by some as a waste of drinking water, only 1% of the water is lost because of the nasoni running continuously, compared to nearly 50% of water lost due to old and leaky pipes.
• According to estimates, operating a nasone costs the city of Rome approximately 3–5 Euro per day, depending on the strength of the water flow

Source: Wikipedia | Nasone (opens in a new tab)

Comments

• Saw them in person in Milan, Verona, Rome, Naples
• 2024-05-06 - Saw them again in La Grande Bellezza
• 2024-05-15 - Saw them in the TV series Ripley.