Rome: Private Underground Trevi Fountain & Spanish Steps Tour

Highlights

• Underground Vicus Caprarius
• Official private guide
• Above and below Rome

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Vicus Caprarius – the City of Water

   30min

   Trevi Fountain Underground (Vicus Caprarius – The City of Water) Located roughly 9 meters beneath the Trevi Fountain district, this site reveals ancient Roman infrastructure and everyday life. The underground tour centers on the Aqua Virgo, the only ancient Roman aqueduct functioning continuously since 19 BCE, which still feeds the Trevi Fountain today. Visitors explore the Vicus Caprarius, a complex featuring a 1st-century Roman apartment block (insula) converted into a 4th-century luxury villa (domus), alongside a massive masonry reservoir (castellum aquae) where water still trickles through ancient stonework. An onsite museum showcases artifacts excavated between 1999 and 2001, including a marble bust of Cleopatra’s son (Alessandro Helios), a hoard of over 800 Roman bronze coins, amphorae, terra cotta tiles, and oil lamps. The tour takes about 30 to 45 minutes, enters via Vicolo del Puttarello 25, and requires advanced reservations due to limited underground space.

2. 2

   Trevi Fountain

   30min

   Travelers will stand before the Trevi Fountain, Rome's largest and most famous fountain, admiring its dramatic baroque sculptures of Oceanus and his sea horse-drawn chariot carved into the back of Palazzo Poli. Your guide will explain how the fountain is still fed by the ancient Aqua Virgo aqueduct, originally built in 19 BC and still flowing nearly 2,000 years later. Travelers can take in the scale and detail of the sculptures up close, snap photos of one of the most iconic spots in Rome, and take part in the famous tradition of tossing a coin over their shoulder into the fountain, said to guarantee a return trip to the city.

3. 3

   Spanish Steps

   30min

   Travelers will admire Rome's famous 135-step baroque staircase, built in the 1720s to connect the Piazza di Spagna with the French church of Trinità dei Monti above. Your guide will share the story behind the steps' name, their long history as a gathering place for 18th- and 19th-century artists, poets, and writers, and their enduring fame as a backdrop in films like Roman Holiday. Travelers can take in sweeping views over Piazza di Spagna from the top, see the Fontana della Barcaccia at the base, and soak in one of Rome's most photographed and romantic settings.

Before you go

Location