Tourists who want to get close to Rome’s Trevi Fountain will soon have to pay a €2 (US$2.34) fee, the city mayor said on Friday, as authorities look to profit more handsomely from Italy’s many attractions.
Mayor Roberto Gualtieri told reporters the new payment system would start on February 1, adding that the measure was expected to raise €6.5 million (US$7.6 million) a year.
“Two euros isn’t very much … and it will lead to less chaotic tourist flows,” Gualtieri said, stressing that citizens of Rome will continue to have free access to the fountain.
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Tourists will have to pay if they want to get onto the stone steps surrounding the fountain’s basin, while the small surrounding square offering a view of the imposing monument will remain open for everyone.
The Trevi Fountain, where tradition dictates that visitors toss a coin into the water to guarantee their return to Rome, has long been a major tourist attraction, even for visiting world leaders.
Completed in 1762, the monument is a late Baroque masterpiece depicting Oceanus, the god of all water, and symbolising the varying moods of the world’s seas and rivers.