Rome Considers 2-Euro ($2.25) Ticket to Visit Trevi Fountain

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 one of Rome’s most iconic landmarks could soon have to pay a 2-euro ($2.25) ticket fee under a new proposal by city officials.

The plan, which must still be approved by the City Council, would see visitors have to pay to access the nine stone steps leading up to the Trevi Fountain. Passersby in the piazza overlooking the fountain would not have to pay and the fee would be waived for Romans.

The proposal comes as officials in the Italian capital look at ways to manage tourism to one of Rome’s most-visited sites, which sees hoards of visitors any given day taking selfies and betting on a return trip by tossing coins into the Baroque monument.

Alessandro Onorato, the city’s top tourism official, told The Associated Press Friday that the small fee is roughly the same amount that people toss into the fountain to make a wish.

“We have to avoid, especially in a fragile art city like Rome, that too many tourists damage the tourist experience, and damage the city,” Onorato 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 operational by spring.

The proposal follows a controversial 5-euro daytripper access fee to Venice that was tested this summer. Officials in the lagoon city said the fee, which was ultimately approved by the Italian government, helped reduce daytrippers and improve the experience for those staying longer.

Onorato said the entrance fee to the Trevi Fountain would also help discourage people from eating on the steps overlooking the fountain and feeding pigeons or, worse, from 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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