A temporary walkway over Rome's Trevi Fountain was inaugurated on Saturday, to allow tourists to visit the famous 'La Dolce Vita' site while it undergoes a clean-up.
The walkway, placed above the pool, was designed so that around 130 people at a time could get a closer look at the fountain.
Tourists will thus live “an experience which will not be spoiled by too many crowds”, assured the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.
“We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to admire the fountain and do it from a unique point of view, because what you can see from the walkway you will never be able to see normally,” he said. he declared.
This Baroque masterpiece built on the facade of a palace is one of the most popular sites in Rome, made famous by Federico Fellini's film “La Dolce Vita”, in which Anita Ekberg invites Marcello Mastroianni to the join in the fountain basin.
Traditionally, many tourists throw coins there as a good luck charm. Normally, the monument is visited by 10,000 to 12,000 people per day.
Franck Petretto, a 50-year-old French tourist, was one of the first to pass through the new building, calling the view “wonderful and very, very beautiful.”
“Even without the water flowing into the fountain, you can really see that the architecture is remarkable, and it’s really quite nice,” he said.
Current work involves removing limestone deposits from the facade of the fountain, which can darken it over time, and removing loose material between the stones, where invasive vegetation grows.
During cleaning operations, tourists are not allowed to throw coins into the pool.
The building had already been cleaned from top to bottom around ten years ago, during an 18-month renovation sponsored by Fendi.
At the time, the Italian fashion house installed a plexiglass bridge over the pool, allowing tourists to continue admiring the monument.
