In a niche in this wall stands a small, weathered figure holding a barrel with water trickling out of it, and he's the only one of the group who isn't an ancient statue.
Il Facchino was made around 1580 and shows an acquarolo, a water carrier who hauled barrels through the city from the Tiber or from a spring and sold the water by the bucket. The trade vanished once the aqueducts were repaired and the fountains started flowing again.
His face is so worn down by weather, wind and centuries of touching hands that it has almost no features left. A stubborn story claims it portrays Martin Luther, which isn't true and mostly shows how much Rome loves slipping an extra joke into its streets.
As a talking statue he was given the voice of the ordinary man: his texts were about taxes, the price of bread, and who was getting rich off someone else's labour this time. A contemporary summed up the cast by saying that spoke for the nobility, for the middle classes, and the Facchino for the common people.
From here we walk back in ten minutes to the square where our stroll began, passing the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.
Sources. Story: Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali (Il Facchino, statue parlanti); Treccani (acquaroli) Photos: Photo: Sailko (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)
