Visitors to Rome have have been displeased in recent days to discover that the water has stopped flowing in the Eternal City’s Trevi Fountain, stripping the popular tourist destination of its normally photogenic appeal.
The city drained the fountain to clean it ahead of the Vatican’s Jubilee Year, which begins Christmas Eve. Visitor access to the site is currently via a temporary walkway, with capacity limits. But the real problem is the small, makeshift, plywood-sided pool on the stairs in front of the fountain into which visitors are now instructed to toss coins.
It’s “ugly,” visitor Daniela Carbone told the Associated Press, noting that her family had nonetheless participated in the popular coin ritual. “We have to please the children.”
Throwing a coin over one’s left shoulder into the fountain is said to ensure a return trip to Rome. Legend has it that a second coin means you will fall in love with an Italian, and a third means marriage. But does an unsightly basin capture the same magic?
Unhappy Trip Advisor reviews suggest it does not.
“Shattered memories! Don’t go!” one visitor warned. “It was horrible. The fountain is fenced off with orange netting, so you can’t get near it, let alone throw any coins in! It was massively overcrowded. It was really sad for me as I had such good memories of it.”
“It’s barricaded up and has no water,” another added. “Also, it’s a circus around it. Tons of people trying to get that photo for the Gram, and it’s just too much.”
While some visitors were more understanding about the maintenance work, the combination of the raised walkway and smaller pool meant that a lot of the coins were missing their target.
“It is much more of a challenge with the barrier there,” Fausto Pastori told the Guardian. “It is funny to look at, but I guess it gives you a unique experience.”
A Baroque masterpiece, designed by architect Nicola Salvi and completed in 1762, the Trevi Fountain is tucked away into a tiny Roman piazza. Built into the rear facade of the Palazzo Poli, the fountain is a dramatic sight, with the giant god Oceanus riding a horse-drawn shell chariot beneath a triumphal arch, waters flowing into a turquoise pool.
A 2016 report found that people were throwing in €1.4 million ($1.5 million) worth of coins into the Trevi Fountain each year, all donated to the Catholic non-profit Caritas.
It’s been less than 10 years since the Trevi Fountain completed its last restoration, a €2.18 million ($2.98 million) project that required a 16-month closure. During the work—which was much needed, after an especially cold winter in 2012 caused the ornamental cornice to start crumbling—the fountain became infested with a mischief of rats.
The Trevi Fountain, surrounded by a net due to the start of maintenance work, has a rectangular basin installed to prevent tourists from throwing coins on November 1, 2024, in Rome, Italy. Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
This time around, the Capitoline Superintendency expects to spend just €300,000 ($329,000) on maintenance of the historic site. The work will center on removing calcium build up from the basin, as well as rust on structural bolts.
The work a decade ago was sponsored by Fendi, the Italian luxury fashion house, which built a Plexiglas bridge above the fountain while it was drained. (It provided a unique view for tourists, and later served as the catwalk for a Fendi fashion show.) Just like during the current work, there was also a temporary basin into which tourist could throw coins.
After the reopening, police caught a pair of American tourists swimming in the fountain and hit them with a €450 ($500) fine.
The Trevi Fountain, surrounded by a net due to the start of maintenance work, has a rectangular basin installed to prevent tourists from throwing coins on November 1, 2024, in Rome, Italy. Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
The fountain recently featured in the fourth season of Netflix’s popular series Emily in Paris. The titular character, played by Lily Collins, and her new suitor, Marcello Muratori (Eugenio Franceschini), partook in the traditional coin pastime. Of course, in Emily’s candy-colored Europe, the couple got to experience the fountain free of the bustling crowds—and with the water flowing freely.
Along with the Trevi Fountain, the city of Rome is spending €1.2 million ($1.3 million) on maintenance of five other Roman fountains, including the Barcaccia, a 400-year-old Pietro Bernini fountain in Piazza di Spagna, at the foot of the Spanish Steps. There are currently some 3,200 public construction projects ongoing in Rome in anticipation of the 32 million tourists expected in the capital during the Jubilee Year.
To manage the hoards that descend on the Trevi Fountain each day, Rome is considering blocking off access, instituting a €2 ($2.20) entry fee, and limiting visits to 30 minutes. This would follow a similar move at the Pantheon, which since last year has charged €5 ($5.50) except for Roman residents.
