Rome wants to put a price on the Trevi Fountain

After the launch of the famous "paid entry to Venice", which took place last April, Rome could be the next Italian city to impose access restrictions to one of the Capital's most famous attractions. In order to preserve and make the visit to the Trevi Fountain more enjoyable for visitors, the city council wants to limit access to the square by introducing a ticket, which will be paid for tourists but free for residents. Discussions on methods to counter the chaos that occurs daily around the Fountain began last year, when a tourist dove into the waters of the monument. The proposal for limited access came from Tourism Councillor Alessandro Onorato, who this week again supported the project with a video on Instagram. Onorato stated that this year Roman tourism has reached record highs, which is why there is a need to find a solution to mass tourism, which threatens the lives of residents, the streets, and the city's monuments.    

According to the proposal promoted by Onorato, the ticket to access the Trevi Fountain would mainly serve to limit the number of people visiting the square. It would be free for Roman citizens and cost €2 for tourists. The revenue would be reinvested in the same institution, to hire staff to control tickets and exits. This summer, all of Europe faced the problem of mass tourism, worsened after the Pandemic and even more so in recent years—last month in Barcelona, thousands of residents took to the streets in protest against the large tourist flows that make peaceful living impossible. Apart from the crowds, which mainly gather around the most famous attractions making life difficult for downtown residents, mass tourism brings a series of serious problems that are radically changing all major European cities, such as increased prices, rents, worsening public services, and a general decline in quality of life. As stated by the Tourism Councillor on Instagram, this year the influx of tourists to the Italian Capital is at a record high: while in 2023 it welcomed as many as 50 million visitors, in the first half of this year the number has seen a 5% jump.