I’ve been the “Fast Culture” columnist for Italia! Magazine for more than 12 years. My new book, Rome Through the Mist: Walks Among the Fountains of the Eternal City invites readers to join me on a journey among 80 of Rome’s celebrated fountains, to find a more intimate way of experiencing the Eternal City. On foot with book in hand, or simply in imagination, each chapter takes readers on a vividly described walk, enhanced with Patricia’s colorful, subtly revealing photographs of Roman life. Every fountain in Rome tells a story; every story is about Rome: her history, her legends, and her extraordinary people, from poets to popes, artists to models, architects to emperors. Every street, piazza, wall and garden that contains a fountain has a past worth knowing. You are invited to follow the paths in this book, with 15 different step-by-step walking tours, 17 maps, and 181 photos. There are plenty of hints, too, about things to see and experience along the way, especially the matchless artistic treasures that await behind unexpected doors. In your armchair or on your feet, journey from Trevi’s torrents to the Naiad’s naughty nymphs; from the quiet basins in Piazza San Simeone to Bernini’s mighty Four Rivers in Piazza Navona; from the Dark Fountains in Villa Borghese to the charming lionesses in Piazza del Popolo, and listen to the voices of the waters.

As you explore, with Rome’s fountains as guideposts, you’ll discover many of the city’s famous sights, and many more that are little-known wonders. Here are just a few:

Trevi Fountain

Tossing a coin in the Trevi

Hotel Fontana, facing the Trevi Fountain

Trevi seen from the Penthouse Lounge of the Hotel Fontana

Vicus Caprarius, an ancient neighborhood and cistern, beneath the streets near the Trevi Fountain

Naiad Fountain

In Piazza Repubblica

Nymph of the Underground Waters

Hellenistic Statue “The Boxer” in Palazzo Massimo

Baths of Diocletian

Colossal Animal Heads in the Baths of Diocletian

Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” in Santa Maria della Vittoria church

Santa Maria degli Angeli church faces the Naiad Fountain

The Dark Fountains

in Villa Borghese Park

Galleria Borghese Art Museum

Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne” in the Galleria Borghese

Detail of Bernini’s “Abduction of Persephone” in Galleria Borghese

Enjoying a“Bici” ride, Villa Borghese Park

One of Villa Borghese Park’s “Secret Gardens”

San Simeone Fountain

Caravaggio’s St. Matthew and the Angel, San Luigi dei Francesi church, on the way to Piazza San Simeone

Ancient Arches & Walls of the Stadium of Domitian, beneath a corner of Piazza Navona on the way from Piazza San Simeone to the Four Rivers Fountain