I have been to italy and toured Rome and Venice and this thought just occured to me. How did the intricately carved fountains survive? It just seems like such an odd stand out when so much of Rome is ruins, and much of the existing sculpture has broken pieces.
Wait a second. I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly and not misunderstanding you. At the risk of sounding patronizing, are you talking about such monuments as the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi and the Fontana di Trevi? These are not ancient fountains, they're Renaissance, over a thousand years more recent than the construction of the ancient works in the Forum Romanum and elsewhere.