CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The drought is so relentless that his town now rations water. For eight-hour blocks every day, they can't turn on their taps. And they aren't alone. So far, 20 nearby towns have had to follow suit. Roughly $200 million in crops have been lost in the Central Lazio region alone. And two billion dollars have gone up in smoke nationwide, due to drought and related brush fires, according to Coldiretti.

Conditions have gotten so dire that even Rome, the city of aqueducts, has warned it too may have to ration water for a million and a half Rome residents, and the tourists who flock there.

There are almost 3,000 of these drinking fountains like this all over Rome, and there's a trick to getting a good drink.

But that could soon be a thing of the past. The city is currently turning off 30 fountains a day because of the drought.

Romans call them nasoni, or "big noses" for their curved spigots. The water utility says it's the first time in history they've had to turn them off, a radical move in a city where water plays such a central role, from the Trevi fountain, to the Tiber River.