Approaching the Trevi Fountain, toss a coin, make a wish and take a photo. This is the ritual that the Thousands of tourists visit the famous monument in Rome, Italy, every hour. The most cautious figures speak of up to 500,000 visitors per month at the fountain.
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Rome was Europe’s leading tourist city in 2023, with some 50 million visitors, according to the City Destinations Alliance’s report on European urban tourism.
But the consequences of the massive arrival of tourists to this famous fountain have begun to be felt more and more strongly in Rome and other cities in Italy and Europe, so Rome’s tourism councillor Alessandro Onorato proposed this week charging tourists to visit the Trevi Fountain, as well as limiting the number of rentals in the city’s historic centre to combat mass tourism.
Tourists prefer to defy the law and public health to take selfies.
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“I would be in favour of studying a new access (to the Trevi Fountain), restricted and time-bound, with a reservation system: free for Romans and paid, with a symbolic euro, for tourists,” Onorato said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
The aim of this possible measure, according to the tourism councillor, would be to reduce crowds around the monument and discourage the consumption of pizza and ice cream. in the square to avoid the waste that accumulates on the floor and stairs of one of the largest monumental fountains of the Roman Baroque.
This is not the first time that Rome City Hall has considered measures to limit tourist access. A 5 euro fee was introduced last summer to enter the Pantheon, Italy’s most visited monument, although it is free for city residents.
Onorato’s proposal is that tourists pay a symbolic contribution of one or two euros. According to the newspaper El País, the Rome City Council proposes that a fee be charged to access the staircase next to the fountain, while the walk through the square to observe the fountain from a distance would remain free of charge.
To get close to the water and throw a coin, you would need to make a reservation.
Italy’s major tourist sites have been deserted for several days.
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Councillor Onorato also proposed reducing the number of short-term rentals (less than 30 days) which has almost doubled in the capital in recent years, going from 17,000 in 2018 to more than 30,000 currently.
“Tourists risk staying in basements or repurposed garages, with enormous damage to the image of our city,” he warned.
Onorato called on Giorgia Meloni’s central government to give regions more autonomy when it comes to granting licenses for this type of accommodation. and thus be able to preserve the places affected by mass tourism where there are hardly any residents left and local shops and craft workshops tend to disappear.
We want to put a stop to it, perhaps for two or three years, to safeguard the historical and artistic heritage.
“We can limit the number of restaurants or chip shops in the historic centre, but we cannot prevent the opening of extra-hotel facilities,” the councillor complains indignantly.
“We want to put a stop to it, perhaps for two or three years, to safeguard the historical and artistic heritage, the quality of trade and the right to residence, but our hands are tied,” he laments.
But Rome is not the only city trying to take action. Venice, for example, tested a 5 euro toll this year to discourage mass tourism.
In the centre of Venice there are 48,997 inhabitants, most of them over 65 years old: on the other hand, there are more than 52,000 tourist places, and on peak days the number of visitors exceeds 170,000. In 2023 alone, Venice welcomed 38 million visitors, but only 30 percent spent the night in the lagoon, according to citizens’ associations.
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