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'Flying over Berlin' on Europe's Highest Swing

Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
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'Flying over Berlin' on Europe's Highest Swing

Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File

Pascal Vent let out a nervous laugh as he peered down at the ground from Berlin's newest tourist attraction, a swing on the top of a 40-storey tower block.
Billed as the highest swing in Europe, the contraption on top of a hotel next to Berlin's famous TV tower is a novel way to take in the city -- with a dose of adrenaline thrown in.
Once strapped into a harness, customers are propelled forward so that when they are at the high point of the swing, there is nothing between them and the ground 120 meters (nearly 400 feet) below.
"After the first few swings, you get used to it and you feel free," said Vent, a media worker who wanted to try out the swing for his 36th birthday.
"I came here to feel a bit younger," he said.
The swing, which charges around 20 euros ($22) for five minutes, has attracted more than 100 visitors a day since it opened in June.
Victoria Voigt, a 34-year-old care worker, discovered the attraction via social media.
"It feels a bit like flying," she said.
Wendy Sorice, a 30-year-old hotel worker, described the experience as an "adrenaline rush" and said she could happily have done it for longer than five minutes.
But her boyfriend was not so enthusiastic -- overcome by vertigo, he stayed on the ground to film her instead.
"We wanted to create something simple and easy to access," said Andi Hoefer, managing director of the company that set up the swing, which operates several attractions in Germany.
The company had previously offered base jumping from the top of the building, but it attracted only limited interest.
The swing offers some competition for the 368-meter TV tower, a famous symbol of the former East Germany with sweeping views across Berlin.
"They have sloping windows, but we have a terrace and fresh air," Hoefer said.
And the fact the attraction beats the record for the highest swing in Europe, previously held by a 100-meter swing in Amsterdam? "Pure chance," he said.

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Visitors to Get Rare View of Rome's Trevi Fountain

(FILES) Tourists visit the restoration site of the famous Trevi fountain from a walkway on July 8, 2014 in Rome. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
(FILES) Tourists visit the restoration site of the famous Trevi fountain from a walkway on July 8, 2014 in Rome. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
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Visitors to Get Rare View of Rome's Trevi Fountain

(FILES) Tourists visit the restoration site of the famous Trevi fountain from a walkway on July 8, 2014 in Rome. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
(FILES) Tourists visit the restoration site of the famous Trevi fountain from a walkway on July 8, 2014 in Rome. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)

Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain is to undergo a two-month clean-up when some visitors will get a rare, close-up view of the Baroque masterpiece from a suspended walkway, authorities have said.

Construction of the walkway began Monday "to allow for a major extraordinary maintenance intervention" on the fountain, Rome city council said.

The 18th-century fountain stars in to the most famous scene in Federico Fellini's film "La Dolce Vita,” when actress Anita Ekberg takes a dip.

Now it is besieged with tourists most days. The monument is "located in an area with high pedestrian traffic and subject to particular microclimatic conditions" that lead to "invasive vegetation and calcareous deposits" forming on parts most exposed to water, AFP quoted the council as saying.

The work -- including cleaning stones in the lower part of the monument and grouting joints -- should be completed by the end of the year, the council said.

Limited groups of visitors will be allowed to cross the fountain on a raised walkway while the maintenance is carried out.

The walkway will be ready within a month and "will offer the opportunity to acquire new data on attendance, useful for solving the overcrowding problems,” authorities said.

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

Rome authorities said this month they were considering introducing a ticketing system for visitors to control the crowds.

Visitor numbers are expected to surge 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.

It is not the first time a walkway has been installed above the basin, with fashion house Fendi installing a plexiglass bridge in 2014 during an 18-month long restoration.