Rome may soon charge tourists to visit the Trevi Fountain

A visit to Rome could soon cost more.

Tourism officials in the Eternal City are desperate to ease overcrowding around the iconic Trevi Fountain, so much so that they have floated the idea of ​​an entrance fee and reservation system for visits to the beloved Baroque-era site.

The idea of ​​staggered entry and a modest fee of a few euros comes as the Italian capital is seeing a surge in visitors, with the historically sacred site absorbing about 1,200 tourists an hour, the AP reported.

Authorities complain that many tourists behave badly. Last summer, a woman shocked locals by climbing into the water to refill her water bottle.

Others have been caught attempting the famous plunge into the “La Dolce Vita” fountain – an act punishable by a heavy fine.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualteri expressed his support for the project proposed by tourism official Alessandro Onorato, who pointed out that the entrance fee would be comparable to the amount of money that many visitors throw into the world-famous wishing well, which already brings in more than a million dollars a year.

“We have to avoid, especially in a fragile art city like Rome, that too many tourists harm the tourist experience and the city,” Onorato told the AP. “We have to preserve two things: that tourists do not experience chaos and that citizens can continue to live in the center.”

Not far away, at the Colosseum, an outlaw visitor was caught carving his initials into stone.

Visitors would be allowed to admire the fountain for free from a distance, but access to the amphitheater-style viewing area would now be tightly controlled.

The Romans would be exempt from this tax.

Besides the concerns of criminal disturbance and trespassing, Oronato said the fee would discourage loitering — some visitors like to hang out and eat their lunch on the steps, feeding the leftovers to pigeons.

“Rule violations would be less frequent, if not non-existent, because we would know the names and addresses of people entering the building. It becomes more complicated,” he said.

Further up the hill, in Venice, a five-euro-a-day tourist tax was introduced last April to protect ancient heritage sites (experts say overtourism is endangering monuments around the world).

This did not stop a tourist from recently disrespecting a cemetery by jumping into the adjacent canal to swim.

In Sicily, authorities are taking tough measures to ban mafia-related souvenirs.

Meanwhile, in Spain, where overtourism has become the norm in some cities — recently leading Barcelona residents to chase tourists with water pistols — authorities recently floated the idea of ​​imposing an entrance fee on visitors to Seville’s Plaza de España.

“With the city’s budget alone, we cannot preserve our heritage, nor guarantee the safety of the monument,” wrote frustrated Mayor Luis Sanz on X.