Flooding of Piazza Navona in Rome in July and August for two hundred years

Piazza Navona, one of the central squares of Rome, was turned into a lake for the hottest months of the year from the seventeenth century onwards. For two hundred years the Roman authorities used Piazza Navona to cool the city, flooding it in July and August. This greatly hindered traffic in the streets, but it was the residents of the neighbouring houses who suffered most, deprived of proper access to their homes and plagued by insects breeding in the water.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Flooding of Piazza Navona in Rome in July and August for two hundred years

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s