Tourists toss coins over a makeshift pool as Rome’s Trevi Fountain undergoes maintenance
The Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Tourists eager to fulfill the fabled promise to return to the Eternal City are being forced to toss coins over a plastic barrier and into a small makeshift pool in front of Rome’s Trevi Fountain while the iconic attraction is being drained for maintenance. The rectangular box, unadorned and showing its plywood finish, has elicited mixed reactions. “I think it is a very sweet gesture that people can still do that,” said Marianna Strekstadt, visiting from the Netherlands on Friday. Others, like Daniela Carbone, found the substitute pool “ugly.” Yet, she gave her kids some coins to throw in anyway. “We have to please the children,” she said.