Rome is inextricably linked to water: the Tiber, the aqueducts, the baths, the lakes, the proximity of the city to the sea, the ancient cisterns, the naumachias, the Cloaca Maxima, the thousands of fountains (there are more fountains than churches !), the noses (small drink-fountains in the streets), many little decorative fountains...

Sometimes, however, it can happen that you come across the fountain you don't expect.

We are on the Palatine Hill, the most important of the Seven Hills, the place where the city was founded.

Here centuries of history and construction have been stratified.
In the 16th century, the Farnese family built on the ruins of the Emperors palaces a residence immersed in a garden of delights, rich in rare exotic plants, as well as aviaries where one could admire gaudy peacocks and colorful parrots; ancient statues that were reused in that place, in a setting of surprising water games.

We are surrounded by the splendor of the Horti Farnesiani, on top of the Palatine Hill, a place from which you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the Capitol City.

As we wander around the ruins of the Domus Tiberiana, making our way through bushes and centenary trees, suddenly - descending a flight of stairs - we meet a real surprise: the Nymphaeum of Rain.

A cascade of pouring water, immersed in semi-darkness; a real ghostly apparition inside a largely forgotten place, unknown to most, almost erased by earthquakes, by centuries, by abandonment and - as if that wasn't enough - by the demolitions carried out by archaeologists who, between the nineteenth and the twentieth century, brought to light the ruins on which the Farnese gardens had been built.

Among the few structures that survived the many adversities previously described, we can still admire the portal with the lilies, symbol of the Farnese family, the recently restored Nymphaeum of Mirrors, the Aviaries, the Teatro del Fontanone, as well as the main object of this article: the Nymphaeum of Rain.

It was a refuge in which the wealthy owners went to shelter from the summer heat; a dark, cool, shady triclinium, to protect themselves and their guests on the days when the "ardores solis", the flames of sun, proved all their power.

Imagine this place, so pleasant to see, scattered with statues and frescoes, in a cool, mild temperature.

A magical place, where even the ear could enjoy the sound of an artificial waterfall reproducing the sound of abundant rain, creating a subliminal effect inside the grotto, artificial itself, which, even in the middle of August , offered the sensation of stepping out of time and finding oneself in a dimension able to provide relief and serenity.

The Nymphaeum is fed by the overlying Fontanone, a system of overlapping basins from which the water overflows, flowing into small waterfalls and then collects in an invisible channel that creates the rain effect in the artificial cave below.

A magnificent fountain, which still today triumphantly overlooks the Roman Forum from a terrace where, in the Farnese times, a number of hidden jets inside the floor created water tricks to cheer and surprise the lucky guests.