La Bocca della Verita – The Mouth of Truth

Welcome to the Piazza della bocca della verita, that is, the Square of the Mouth of Truth – surely a name you can’t forget! So what’s the story behind it? To answer that, we need to walk up to the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Notice this rather unusual statue under its portico? It’s the famous Mouth of Truth. There’s a certain something about this 2000-year-old marble mask that’s just fascinating! It has a face with a mouth, nose, and eyes. Some say it’s actually Poseidon! We think it may have been a manhole cover, being so close to the Cloaca Maxima, the Roman sewage system! The god of the sea pointing the way to the city’s wastewater. Isn’t that fitting? And they say it’ll bite off your hand if you lie. It’s like a real-life lie detector! But if you’ve seen the film “Roman Holiday,” you’ll probably know this already. Gregory Peck takes Audrey Hepburn here and tricks her into thinking he’s lost his hand! Chances are you won’t find any movie stars from the 50s here, but rather a crowd of tourists testing their luck! And you, are you brave enough to face the Mouth of Truth?