Passeggiata nel nostro quartiere con italiano lento

What does “fontanella” mean in Italian?

A fontanella is the little public drinking fountain you find on Italian street corners and in piazzas: a small spout of free, cold, drinkable tap water for anyone passing by. The -ella ending is a diminutive of fontana (fountain), so the word literally means “little fountain” — and that smallness is the point. It is the humble, functional cousin of the grand monumental fontana tourists photograph.

In Rome the cast-iron versions are nicknamed nasoni (“big noses”) for their curved spout; elsewhere they are just fontanelle. The diminutive suffix -ella / -ello is worth collecting as a learner: it shrinks and often softens a noun (finestra → finestrella, cosa → cosella), and it is everywhere in casual speech.