Trevi Fountain

What feeds this fountain isn't ornamental plumbing — it's the working outflow of the Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct finished in 19 BC that has been delivering the same spring water to roughly this same spot for over two thousand years. The Roman legend behind the name says a young woman, a virgo, once led thirsty soldiers to the spring; whether or not that's true, the aqueduct itself is real and still functioning.

The fountain as you see it today took decades longer than expected to build. Pope Clement XII opened a design competition in 1730; Nicola Salvi won it, broke ground in 1732, and died in 1751 before the work was done — it was finally finished by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. The ritual most visitors know it for is far younger than the fountain itself: tossing a coin over your left shoulder to guarantee a return to Rome is a tradition popularized by the 1954 Hollywood film Three Coins in the Fountain, not an old Roman custom at all.

Those coins aren't just souvenirs of the ritual — city workers sweep or vacuum roughly €3,000 out of the basin every day, and the annual total, somewhere around €1.4 to €1.5 million, is handed over to the Catholic charity Caritas, which uses it to help fund a soup kitchen, a food bank and welfare programs across Rome. Every wish thrown away here is, in a very literal sense, paying for somebody else's dinner.

Getting there

Located in Vatican City. Ciampino–G. B. Pastine International Airport (CIA) is about 15 km away.