Ciao a tutti! It’s late September and it is still quite hot in Rome. On a recent radio program, I joined Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw to talk about water and Rome. I always thought that if I could choose two themes for Rome they would be Power and Memory and if I could choose two identifying materials they would be water and stone. The extraordinary capacity of the ancient Romans to move enormous amounts of water with their 11 aqueducts allowed them to use it for hygiene (the great baths), survival (access to clean drinking water), entertainment (mock naval battles in the now disappeared specialized structures called naumachiae), and decoration (the ancient city’s many fountains). Still today as I walk through the streets of the busy city, I always love to hear the trickling sound of the water falling into the basins of my favorite fountains like the hidden, delicate Fontana delle Tartarughe (Fountain of the Turtles) near the Ghetto, and to fill up my water bottle at the nasoni (nearly 2,000 constantly running drinking fountains). You can find the podcast here. I wonder what you associate the place where you live with?