Siena does not have a major river. It has no lakes, no convenient springs, nor anything else that usually ensures a city's survival. Yet Siena solved this problem with an elegance and audacity that still leave people speechless today: it dug a network of drainage tunnels approximately 25 kilometers long beneath the ground the famous bottini which collect water through soil infiltration and channel it to the city's fountains.
It was not mere engineering. It was underground poetry. And the result of it all are the fountains: magnificent architectures of water, both beautiful and functional, often featuring three distinct basins, one for drinking water, one for watering animals, and one for washing clothes that structured the daily life of entire neighborhoods. Some were covered and guarded like fortresses, because during a siege, water was as valuable as bread. Others were located outside the city walls and were gradually incorporated as Siena expanded. All of them, without exception, tell the story of a civilization that understood how water is life, and transformed it into beauty.
