Rome revives plan to limit Trevi Fountain tourists

10 Aug, 2018

Tourists brawl over space for the perfect selfie at Rome fountain.

Rome city council is considering reviving a plan to shuttle tourists past the Trevi Fountain in single-file to deter large groups of visitors from congregating around the 18th-century monument.

Last summer the capital introduced measures to control the flow of crowds at the fountain which attracts vast numbers of tourists every day and is regularly the scene of tourists behaving badly.

Over the last couple of years there have been numerous cases of visitors jumping into the fountain's waters while the latest anti-social incident took place on the evening of 9 August.

A fight broke out between a 19-year-old Dutch woman and a 44-year-old American woman after both attempted to take the perfect "selfie" picture in the same place. The situation deteriorated after the Dutch woman's 13-year-old sister and the American woman's two 17-year-old daughters joined the brawl which was broken up by police.

Last summer's single-file passageway in front of the monument, monitored by retired carabinieri, was supposed to be made permanent in October but this never happened.