Tourists taking pictures of the Trevi Fountain from behind barriers that are set up for maintenance and restoration works in Rome. — AP
If you’re visiting Rome’s Trevi Fountain in the next few months, you’re likely to have a somewhat disappointing view of the site which is undergoing renovation.
In the coming months, visitors will only be able to approach the city’s best-loved fountain using a walkway built while restoration work is under way.
You can also visit the piazza in front of the fountain but barriers block access to the water, with the whole lower area of the water basin cordoned off.
However, the temporary walkway over the fountain will also give visitors a chance to see the Trevi Fountain up close from an “unusual perspective” in small groups, according to Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri. It should be ready in a month.
Local officials, keen to sell the renovation works as a positive, say the changes allow for a whole different view of Rome’s most famous fountain, which draws crowds of visitors from morning to night.
The city is planning measures to better handle the amounts of people at the site and while officials have not hinted what these might be, an entrance fee is under consideration.
While the renovation work at the Trevi Fountain is to be finished by the year’s end, restrictions may remain in place during 2025 as the city marks a jubilee.
The site near the Spanish Steps is not the only one in Rome clad in scaffolding these days. Fountains at the Piazza Navona in the city centre are also being renovated, as well as in front of the Pantheon, for example.
Further facelifts are under way on the fountains at Piazza Farnese, also in the historic centre, and at Piazza di Santa Maria in the Trastevere neighbourhood.
Beyond the fountains, there is further building work at Villa Borghese, St Peter’s Basilica, and near the Colosseum.
All in all, visitors to Rome are likely to see a great deal more building work under way as the city hurries to renovate its biggest attractions in time for the Holy Year next year. Holy Years are usually staged every 25 years in the Catholic Church and are a time of pilgrimage.
Pope Francis announced the coming Jubilee Year under the motto “Pilgrims of Hope”, following the pandemic and amid war and the climate crisis.
Some 30 million Catholic pilgrims are expected to visit Rome for the Catholic Jubilee year, with the event due to be opened by the pope on Dec 24. He is to open the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica in a ceremony marking a year when Catholics are likely to visit the saints’ tombs in Rome in a search for a renewed sense of hope and faith. – dpa
