ROME \u2014 Tourists hoping to get close to the Trevi Fountain had to pay $2.35 starting Monday as the city of Rome inaugurated a new fee structure to help raise money and control crowds at the one of the world’s most celebrated waterworks.<\/p>\n
The first tourists to pass through the new ticket check seemed nonplussed by the tariff, noting it was a small price to pay for quality access to a fountain made famous by Federico Fellini’s movie “La Dolce Vita.”<\/p>\n
“Before, there were problems accessing the fountain. There were a lot of people. Now, it’s very easy,” said Ilhan Musbah, a tourist from Morocco. “You can take photos, you feel good, you’re comfortable, and on top of that 2 euros is not much.”<\/p>\n
The tourist fee was rolled out in conjunction with a new nearly $6 tourist ticket fee for some city museums. In both cases, Rome residents are exempt from the fees and the extra revenue will actually expand the number of city-run museums that are free for registered Roman residents.<\/p>\n
It’s all part of the Eternal City’s efforts to manage tourist flows in a particularly congested part of town, improve the experience and offset the maintenance costs of preserving all of Rome’s cultural heritage. Officials estimate it could net the city $7.6 million extra a year.<\/p>\n
The city decided to impose the Trevi Fountain fee after seeing positive results already from a yearlong experiment to stagger and limit the number of visitors who can reach the front edge of the basin by imposing lines and pathways for entrance and exit.<\/p>\n
“I think tourists were shocked by the fact that the city of Rome is only asking for 2 euros for a site of this level,” Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s assessor of tourism, said Monday. “I believe that if the Trevi Fountain were in New York, they would have charged at least $100.”<\/p>\n
The fee follows a similar ticketing system at Rome’s Pantheon monument and the more complicated tourist day-tripper tax that the lagoon city of Venice imposed last year in a bid to ease overtourism and make the city more livable for residents. The Italian fees still pale in comparison to the 45% price hike that French authorities announced for the Louvre Museum for most non-European visitors, where tickets can now run to $37 from $26.<\/p>\n
The Trevi fee, which can be paid in advance online, enables tourists to get close to the fountain during prime-time daylight hours. The view for those admiring the late Baroque masterpiece from the piazza above remains free, as it is up close after hours.<\/p>\n
The towering fountain features the Titan god Oceanus flanked by falls cascading down the travertine rocks into a shallow turquoise pool, where Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg famously took their nighttime dip in “La Dolce Vita.”<\/p>\n
While bathing is prohibited nowadays, legend has it that visitors who toss a coin over their shoulders and make a wish will return to Rome.<\/p>\n
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