How To Drink Water From A Fountain by Ciambella
Drinking fountains are everywhere in Rome; there seems to be one at every block. The regular stand-alone fountain is called nasone (big nose), with fresh water flowing continuously into a bowl or an underground cistern. The faucet of every nasone is built with a small hole on the top. To drink water from this kind of fountain, you need to block the stream by putting a finger over the end of the pipe, thus forcing a jet of water to gush upwards from the small hole. This design makes drinking from a public fountain easy and hygienic, since a person's lips would never touch the faucet and no act of back bending is required.