Trevi Fountain fee takes effect as Rome seeks to manage crowds and boost tourist experience

Tourists hoping to get close to the Trevi Fountain in the Italian capital, Rome, had to pay €2 starting on Monday, as the city inaugurated a new fee structure to help raise money and control crowds at one of the world’s most celebrated waterworks.

The first tourists to pass through the new ticket check seemed unbothered, noting that it was a small fee to pay to gain access to the historic fountain, made popular by Federico Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita”.

“Before, there were problems accessing the fountain. There were a lot of people. Now, it’s very easy,” said Ilhan Musbah, a tourist from Morocco. “You can take photos, you feel good, you’re comfortable, and on top of that 2 euros is not much.”

The Trevi fee was rolled out in conjunction with a new €5 tourist ticket fee for some city museums. In all cases, Rome residents are exempt from the fees and the extra revenue will actually expand the number of city-run museums that are free for registered residents.

The initiative is part of the Eternal City’s efforts to manage tourist flows in a particularly congested part of town, improve the experience and offset the maintenance costs of preserving all of the historic city’s cultural heritage.

Officials estimate the fountain alone can net the city some €6.5 million in extra revenues per year.

The city decided to impose the fee following the success of a year-long experiment to stagger and limit the number of visitors who can reach the front edge of the basin by imposing lines and pathways for entry and exit.

“I think tourists were shocked by the fact that the city of Rome is only asking for 2 euros for a site of this level,” said Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s assessor of tourism, on Monday. “I believe that if the Trevi Fountain were in New York, they would have charged at least $100.”

The fee follows a similar ticketing structure to that of Rome’s Pantheon monument and the more complicated tourist day-tripper tax that the lagoon city of Venice imposed last year to ease overtourism and make the city more liveable for its residents.

The Italian fees still pale in comparison however to the massive 45% hike French authorities announced recently for the Louvre Museum in Paris for most non-European visitors. The iconic museum raised its admissions tickets to foreign travellers from €22 to €32.

The Trevi fee, which can be paid in advance online, enables tourists to get close to the fountain during prime-time daylight hours. The view for those admiring the late Baroque masterpiece from the piazza above remains free.

The towering fountain features the Titan god Oceanus flanked by falls cascading down the travertine rocks into a shallow turquoise pool, where Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg famously took their nighttime dip in “La Dolce Vita.”

While bathing is prohibited nowadays, legend has it that visitors who toss a coin over their shoulders into the pool and make a wish will return to Rome.