Rome Considers €2 Entrance Fee to Trevi Fountain to Manage Tourist Crowds

Seemingly every tourist in Rome knows the key to returning to the Eternal City is to toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and make a wish.

Tourists visiting Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain could soon be asked to pay a 2-euro ($2.25) entrance fee to help manage tourism at one of the Italian capital’s most-visited sites.

The proposal by the city’s top tourism official, Alessandro Onorato, comes after the measure was tested this summer in Venice, where a 5-euro daytripper access fee to the lagoon city sparked some controversy.

Onorato's proposal must still be deliberated by the City Council before it can take effect, but the city’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, has already voiced support for the measure.

“Two euros is more or less the same amount that people toss into the fountain to make a wish,’’ Onorato told The Associated Press Friday.

According to an ancient tradition, tourists who toss a coin into the Trevi waters are ensured a return trip to Rome. The practice generates hoards of visitors packing the Baroque monument any given day, snapping selfies and betting on a future visit to the Eternal City.

The Trevi tourism plan, which would be active from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., aims to limit the number of people converging on the fountain at the same time, especially during the morning hours, Onorato said.

“We have to avoid, especially in a fragile art city like Rome, that too many tourists damage the tourist experience, and damage thecity,’’ he said. “We need to safeguard two things, that tourists don’t experience chaos and that citizens can continue to live in the center.”

Onorato said he hopes to test the entrance fee, which would be managed through a reservation system and a QR code, in time for the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year, and have the system fully operational by spring.

Passersby in the piazza overlooking the fountain will not be asked to pay. The fee would be charged only to those entering the nine stone steps leading up to the fountain's edge. Romans will also be exempt from the entrance fee.

Onorato said the system would also help discourage people from eating on the steps overlooking the fountain and feeding pigeons or, worse, reenacting Anita Ekberg’s plunge into the fountain in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita,” a frequently repeated offense that carries a fine.

“It would happen less, or maybe it wouldn’t happen at all, because whoever would enter, we would know their names and where they live. It becomes more complicated,’’ he said.

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