Rome Prepares To Limit Visitors To Trevi Fountain To Preserve The Tourist Site

Rome is considering restricting access to the Trevi Fountain, one of its most popular landmarks, in anticipation of a surge in tourism, according to city council officials.

The Italian capital is preparing for the 2025 Jubilee, a significant Roman Catholic event expected to draw 32 million tourists and pilgrims over the course of the year.

As part of the draft proposal, visits to the iconic fountain would require prior reservations, with time slots in place and a limited number of visitors allowed on the steps surrounding the monument at any given time.

Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s tourism councillor, mentioned in an interview with Il Messaggero that Romans might be able to visit for free, while non-residents would need to pay a symbolic fee of one or two euros ($1.10-2.20).

Mayor Roberto Gualtieri also acknowledged on Wednesday that measures to control tourist numbers at the Trevi Fountain are “a very concrete possibility.”

He added, “The situation at the Trevi Fountain is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.”

Similar measures have been considered or implemented in other cities dealing with the challenges of overtourism, such as Barcelona and Venice. Venice, for example, has recently experimented with an entry fee system to regulate visitor numbers.

The Trevi Fountain, completed in 1762, is a late Baroque masterpiece featuring statues of Tritons guiding the shell chariot of the god Oceanus, symbolizing the taming of the waters.

It has been a major attraction for visitors, including world leaders, who often follow the tradition of tossing a coin into the fountain to ensure their return to Rome and the fulfillment of their wishes.

The fountain is also immortalized in film history, with a famous scene from Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, where Anita Ekberg wades into the fountain and calls out to her co-star, Marcello Mastroianni, saying, “Marcello! Come here!”