When I had my trip to Venice with my family, we ended up booking our stay in Treviso where the airport actually is. Not because we didn't want to go any further but because we wanted to see as much of Italy as possible and it seemed like a good excuse to begin with the little city we would arrive in anyway.
However, we had a very well-calculated schedule so we would split our days from that trip accordingly having enough time to see Venice, the islands surrounding it, but also Treviso which we left for the last day before having our flight, as we've read on the internet that one day would be enough for this experience.
Sadly, the weather conditions weren't the best but that didn't stop us from making it out of the place we called home for a couple of days. So we started walking around.
We were close to pretty much anything, from shops to the train station, from the center of the city to some less popular places but beautiful as well. That's how we ended up in a place that is sort of the landmark of Treviso and pretty much in Italy too, but which might seem a bit controversial or funny for some people out there. You tell me in which category you are part of.
Even though I don't think you need to know Italian to understand its name, Fontana delle Tette could be translated as Tits Fountain or the Fountain of Tits and it dates since the 16th century representing Treviso's best-known statue showing a naked female torso.
Creating the statue came on the order of Alvise Da Ponte who was the mayor of the Republic of Venice in 1559 and considered this statue a must need after Treviso faced one of the most severe droughts of all time.
This was originally placed inside the Praetorian Palace and was used as a method of celebration for the autumn festivals where locals could take advantage of 3 days of free wine that flew from the nipples of the statue. One of the breasts was loaded with red wine, while the other one had white wine inside.
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Happy or not, the free wine thing didn't last forever and it's been a few centuries already since the fountain was rebuilt and moved to a new place that is now called Galleria della Strada Romana. The fountain still exists, but what used to be wine a while ago, was fully replaced with water.
Personally, I've seen this statue on the internet before and I remember it being one of the symbols of Italy in general, but I didn't know for sure what it represents and it's, perhaps, the situation for most of the foreign tourists too.
That might seem like a sad thing at first, but I think it's a good thing also based on how people still enjoy seeing the statue and even drink from the water that comes out of the nipples for their own delight, stirring lots of funny moments that would last forever. I doubt the same excitement would come from people who know the background story and that the fountain doesn't have the same role as the one it was built for, but even so, I think it's one of the unique places that one can see in this world which should never be forgotten.
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In 2016, another similar statue was built in a town pretty close to Rome which made the worldwide newspapers go crazy with the information that people can drink free wine from such a creation, but the origins of the real Fontana Delle Tette belong to Treviso, everything dating since 1559.
Even if plenty of foreign tourists remember the newest such creation, I think it's important to remember that Fontana Delle Tette remains a unique statue in the world which might come in more forms and samples but they all belong to Italy.
Plus, there are no proper stories for the copies, but only for the original version of the statue from Treviso which remembers the controversy it stirred and how it went through many vandalism activities as well as trying to be destroyed entirely when Napoleon’s troops came to control the region militarily.
There is also a legend saying that touching both breasts brings good luck to the bold, so the popularity of the statue, unchanged for generations, is understandable.
Fontana Delle Tette is located in the courtyard of the Zignoli Palace, accessible from the gallery connecting Calmaggiore to Piazzetta della Torre and Calle del Podesta. The statue is located one km away from Treviso Train Station and it can be reached by walking for 15 minutes, or you can take any of the following buses that will bring you quite close to your destination: 1, 7, 6, 21, 4, 9, 11, 55.
Other places I've seen during my stay in Treviso:
more coming soon...
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 700+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.
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