Rome Mulls Introducing Tickets for the Trevi Fountain

Yuting, from China, throws two coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, February 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Yuting, from China, throws two coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, February 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Rome Mulls Introducing Tickets for the Trevi Fountain

Yuting, from China, throws two coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, February 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Yuting, from China, throws two coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, February 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Authorities in Rome said Wednesday they were mulling introducing a ticketing system for visitors to the iconic Trevi Fountain, in the latest attempt in Italy to tackle overtourism.

The backdrop to the most famous scene in Federico Fellini's film "La Dolce Vita", when actress Anita Ekberg takes a dip, the 18th-century fountain is top of the list for many visitors exploring the Eternal City.

"Personally, I would be in favor of looking at a new form of access, limited and timed, to the Trevi Fountain," Alessandro Onorato, the city councilor responsible for tourism, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

This would be "a (ticket) reservation system -- free for Romans and costing a symbolic one-euro for tourists", he said, in quotes confirmed by the municipality.

The goal is not to raise money but control the crowds -- including stopping them "eating ice cream or pizza on a monument that deserves the proper respect", he said.

As a result of the fountain's fame, the crowds in the square surrounding the Baroque masterpiece are often so deep that it is hard to get a proper look.

A spokesman for the municipality told AFP the ticket proposal was merely "an initial idea -- there is nothing concrete yet".

"It is a delicate, difficult issue, but sooner or later it must be addressed," he said.

"Tourism in Rome, which is reporting record numbers, must be made sustainable for the city and the environment."

Visitor numbers are expected to surge further in 2025 for the Jubilee, a holy year held by the Catholic Church around once every 25 years, with some 30 million people expected in Rome and the Vatican over the 12 months.

Venice earlier this year trialed a five-euro ($5.50) ticket for day visitors during peak periods, in a bid to encourage people to come at less busy times.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government is also considering hiking the nightly tourist tax, although the proposal has sparked anger among industry groups who warn against scaring people away.

Onorato said Rome authorities would also like to limit the opening of new bed-and-breakfast or holiday homes to reduce the pressure on the historic center, but they do not have the power.

"Today we can limit the number of restaurants or fast-food outlets in the historic center, but we cannot prevent the opening of non-hotel facilities," he said.



UN: Most World Heritage Sites at Risk of Drought or Flooding

Muslim devotees offer Eid al-Adha prayers inside the complex of the Taj Mahal in Agra on June 7, 2025. (Photo by Punit Lal / AFP)
Muslim devotees offer Eid al-Adha prayers inside the complex of the Taj Mahal in Agra on June 7, 2025. (Photo by Punit Lal / AFP)
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UN: Most World Heritage Sites at Risk of Drought or Flooding

Muslim devotees offer Eid al-Adha prayers inside the complex of the Taj Mahal in Agra on June 7, 2025. (Photo by Punit Lal / AFP)
Muslim devotees offer Eid al-Adha prayers inside the complex of the Taj Mahal in Agra on June 7, 2025. (Photo by Punit Lal / AFP)

Almost three quarters of the globe's cultural and natural heritage sites are threatened by too little or too much water, the UN's cultural agency said on Tuesday.

As a result of rising temperatures, extreme weather events including hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves have become more frequent and intense, scientists warn.

Seventy-three percent of all 1,172 non-marine sites on the UNESCO Heritage List are exposed to at least one severe water risk -- including water stress, drought, river flooding or coastal flooding, UNESCO said.

"Water stress is projected to intensify, most notably in regions like the Middle East and North Africa, parts of South Asia and northern China — posing long-term risks to ecosystems, cultural heritage, and the communities and tourism economies that depend on them," it added, according to AFP.

Cultural sites were most commonly threatened by water scarcity, while more than half of natural sites faced the risk of flooding from a nearby river, the UNESCO study showed.

In India, the Taj Mahal monument in Agra, for example, "faces water scarcity that is increasing pollution and depleting groundwater, both of which are damaging the mausoleum," the study said.

In the United State, "in 2022, a massive flood closed down all of Yellowstone National Park and cost over $20 million in infrastructure repairs to reopen."
The report gave four more examples.

Iraq's southern marshes -- the reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden -- "face extremely high water stress, where over 80 percent of the renewable supply is withdrawn to meet human demand", it added.

And competition for water is expected to increase in the marshes, where migratory birds live and inhabitants raise buffalo, as the region grows hotter in coming years.

On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls -- originally called Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") before it was renamed by Scottish explorer David Livingstone -- has faced recurring drought and is sometimes reduced to a trickle.

In Peru, the pre-Colombian city of Chan Chan and its delicate 1,000-year-old adobe walls face an extremely high risk of river flooding, UNESCO said.

In China, rising sea levels driven in large part by climate change are leading to coastal flooding, which destroys mudlands where migratory waterbirds find food, it added.