Rome’s Trevi Fountain replaced by ugly ‘communal pool’ – as officials plan to charge admission

You’re out of luck.

Tourists headed to Rome’s Trevi Fountain in hopes of tossing the traditional coins, brace yourself – the beloved historic site is closed for construction work.

For now, unwitting visitors will find the ancient water feature — said to typically fetch more than $3,200 a day, according to officials — replaced by a utilitarian, temporary one that one critic suggested offered all the charm. of a ‘municipal swim. pool.’

The water was drained and the scenic area roped off last month for renovation work — a step toward a plan to charge the site’s roughly four million annual visitors a fee to get up close and personal with the bucket-list location.

“We have to avoid, especially in a fragile art city like Rome, that too many tourists spoil the tourist experience and damage the city,” tourism official Alessandro Onorato told the AP, explaining the need for the planned fee of about $2.

“We have to preserve two things, so that tourists do not experience chaos and that citizens continue to live in the center”, he said.

Visitors are currently able to pile onto an elevated walkway that runs above the site, before throwing coins into the temporary pool.

Once the work is complete, reservations will reportedly be required in advance for the best viewing areas.

This would be the first attempt to fix the area since the fountain was built in 1732, according to The Sun.

Social media lit up with criticism of the sudden outage – with one renaming the fountain the “Trevi pool”, The Guardian reported.

“Imagine if you flew 14 hours to see the Trevi Fountain and found a municipal swimming pool instead,” asked another critic.

The change comes as a host of popular Mediterranean destinations consider ways to combat overcrowding, which has become a hot issue in Spain, Italy, Greece and elsewhere in recent years.

Cruisers stopping in Mykonos and Santorini, for example, could soon be subject to a $22 visitor tax if officials have their way, it was reported.