Barrier plan for Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain
Barriers are set to be placed around the iconic Trevi Fountain in Rome to stop tourists sitting on the monument, after the city council approved a motion to protect it.
The ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) proposed the move, which was passed almost unanimously yesterday (Friday).
It plans to prevent people from sitting on the sides of the fountain basin and called for the M5S Mayor Virginia Raggi and the city government to implement the motion.
The Trevi Fountain has long been a major - if occasionally too tempting - draw for visitors to the Italian capital, with Rome forced in the past to fine visitors who try to swim in it, imitating the famous scene from La Dolce Vita.
A British woman was fined 450 euros (£455) in 2016 for her bid to copy film history, amid a spate of tourists taking a dip in ancient fountains during a heatwave in Rome.
Police have been trying to implement a ban on sitting on the monument for around a year, but it appears that a more permanent solution could now be the answer.
"There must be respect for the symbolic parts of Roma Capitale," the motion read, also calling for a crackdown on unauthorised street sellers in the area around the fountain and the Colosseum as well as "continuous patrols".
