French tourist receives €450 fine for late night escapade in Rome fountain.

A 31-year-old French tourist has been fined €450 after Rome police caught her in the waters of the Fontana delle Api, located at the  Piazza Barberini end of Via Veneto, in the early hours of 28 April.

The city centre incident, which took place at around 03.30, is the latest in a string of cases of tourists behaving badly in the capital.

Built originally in 1644 by Baroque genius Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the fountain features three bees, symbol of the Barberini family, and was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII.

Bernini's fountain was originally situated at the Via Sistina end of Piazza Barberini, however in 1865 the monument was moved for traffic reasons, its parts dismantled and placed in storage.

Rebuilt in 1915 by sculptor Adolfo Apolloni, who carried out significant changes to Bernini's original design, the fountain was placed in its current location at the bottom of Via Veneto.

In 2017 the fountain was restored, funded by a group of Dutch patrons as a symbolic gesture following the damage done to the 17th-century Barcaccia fountain by rioting Dutch football hooligans in February 2015.

For more details about the fountain see city website. Photo Koninklijke Woudenberg