Rome - Regola

This fountain was created by the Florentine sculptor Taddeo Landini in 1581-84 to the design of Giacomo della Porta. From the marble basin rises a base decorated with four shells, and four slender youths with outstretched arms support the upper basin. The tortoises from which the fountain takes its name were added in the 17th century.

The Palazzo Cenci was built in the 16th century on the site of the ruined Circus Flaminius (221 B.C.). According to popular tradition Francesco Cenci embellished the palace chapel in 1575 to house the tombs of his children Giacomo and Beatrice, whom he had resolved to have killed, but it was the children who murdered their father and were beheaded for the murder on the Ponte Sant'Angelo in 1599. The story provided Shelley with the theme of his verse drama "The Cenci".

It is difficult to remember that this cheerful square, in which the flower market of Rome is held every morning, was a place of execution (rarely used though it might be) during the period of Papal rule. Here on February seventh 1600 Giordano Bruno, a monk found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition and condemned to death when he refused to recant, was burned at the stake. He is commemorated by a bronze statue, under which are medallions of other heretics condemned by the Church, including Erasmus, Wycliffe and Hus.