Rome is the eternal city. And a tourist city. Authorities boast that it is Europe’s “most popular destination”, the fastest growing destination in terms of visitors beyond London and Vienna, and that it adds millions of overnight stays every year. It broke its own record for influx in 2023, and short-term forecasts are even more promising: if calculations are correct, the 2025 Jubilee will result in a flood of people. Faced with such a scenario, Rome authorities are considering protecting the famous Trevi Fountain, one of the city’s greatest landmarks and arguably one of the most popular tourist attractions.

Like? Reservation required and paid.

Do you want to take a selfie by the fountain? Okay, book and pay one euro. That’s basically the idea that the Rome City Council thought of. A few days ago during an interview Corriere della SeraCouncillor Alessandro Onorato, responsible for Tourism and Major Events, has announced that he is considering implementing a reservation and fee system that would bring order to the Trevi Fountain.

“I am in favor of working on a new access, free for Romans and paid for with a symbolic euro for tourists, with a reservation system, conditional and timed,” Onoratto said. He stressed that the aim was to preserve the monument and prevent people from eating at a monument that “deserves respect.”

Order from sourceYears ago, before the pandemic, Roman authorities had already announced their intention to ban the consumption of food and drink in iconic spots in the city, such as the Trevi Fountain or the fountains in Piazza Spagna and Piazza Navona. If Onorato’s new measure is implemented, from now on you will have to reserve and pay a fee of one euro, in addition to throwing a few coins into the fountain to comply with tradition. Unless you are Roman, of course.

An idea but well received. At least for now, the proposal is just an idea, a possibility on the table, but the reaction has not been bad. One of the first to speak was the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, who confirmed that the local government had decided to work on “some technical solutions” to “preserve” the monument and “manage the flow of tourists”.

“The situation is becoming technically very difficult to manage. Even police officers tell us that there is a density of people that makes it difficult to adequately protect the monument and is often a source of deterioration,” says the first mayor. The important thing is to “work out the best solution”, but during the interview Corrière Onorato showed his inclination towards an access system that requires reservations and allows visitors to pay a token fee.

A source of resources. Even the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, spoke about the proposal and is open to exploring a system similar to the one currently implemented, such as the Pantheon. “We must make our wealth profitable, so it is good to impose fees and create a reservation mechanism, not a closed number, to regulate flows and offer tourists a better and more sustainable service.” She pointed out that for the measure to work, the City Council must have “the capacity to guarantee controls and respect for the rules”.

“It doesn’t give me any pleasure anymore”. A very similar message was sent by Romolo Guasco, director of the Roma Confcommercio, who lamented that visiting the Trevi Fountain had become a “difficult” trance that was “no longer enjoyed”. “But every quota must be well implemented. We have effective examples in Italy, but almost all of them are in closed spaces: from Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’ in Milan to the Borghese Gallery in Rome. It must be studied from the point of view of technological and cultural capacity.” Santanchè mentioned another example, the Pantheon. For a little over a year, you have had to pay an entrance fee of five euros to visit it.

This is not the first time a change has been considered around the fountain. Years ago, then-Mayor Virginia Raggi suggested that tourists should be prevented from standing in front of the monument to prevent crowds. “We have around 5,000 agents in the police force, with an average age of between 55 and 60, which is quite high. They do a lot of street surveillance and they are starting to do the same at the monuments. We are working more intensively at the Trevi Fountain. It will change.”

Overcrowding and pricesRome boasts of being the “first European city in tourist growth” with tens of millions of overnight stays per year, but if other great destinations such as Barcelona, ​​​​​Mallorca, Prague, Seoul or Amsterdam have proven anything, it is that the success of the tourist is always simple to cope with.

Italy has seen this firsthand. In Venice, tourists are being charged a five-euro entrance fee to access the most crowded neighborhoods, and the central government is considering a major change to its system of tourist taxes. sogiorno tassaThis would allow the fee to be expanded to all locations in the country and increased to 25 euros per night.

Images | ::ErWin (Flickr) and Kevin Chien (Flickr)

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