Rome’s Trevi Fountain unveils tourist catwalk during cleaning

ROME – A suspended walkway providing tourists an up-close view of Rome’s Trevi Fountain was unveiled, a temporary addition while the famous “La Dolce Vita” site undergoes a cleaning. 
The Baroque masterpiece constructed on the facade of a palace is one of the most popular sites in Rome for tourists, who strain over the crowds to throw their coins into its water. 
While the fountain is being cleaned to remove limestone deposits and grime, however, the walkway positioned over its basin will accommodate some 130 people at a time to take a closer look. 
That will give tourists “an experience not ruined by excessive crowding,” said Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri. 
“We wanted to give everybody the opportunity to admire the fountain and to do this from a unique perspective, because what you can see from the walkway, you will never be able to see normally,” he said.
The fountain — where Anita Ekberg frolicked in Federico Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” — last got a thorough scrub a decade ago during an 18-month renovation sponsored by Fendi. 
Then, too, the Italian fashion house installed a plexiglass bridge above the basin allowing tourists to still admire the fountain. 
The current work involves removing limestone deposits on the fountain’s facade, which can turn black with time, while removing loose material between stones where vegetation grows. 
Tourists won’t be allowed to toss coins over their shoulders into the fountain’s basin — where tradition has it that visitors who do so will return to Rome. 
Instead, a small pool set up next to the walkway has been installed to receive spare change. 
It also allows the flow of donations to Rome’s needy to continue.
Every week, authorities recuperated some 10,000 euros in coins from Trevi Fountain, which were donated to the Caritas charity to fund meals, said Gaultieri.
Gaultieri said city officials were still considering a possible ticketing system to control the crowds at Trevi Fountain once the cleaning is over. 
Visitor numbers are expected to surge next year 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.