Throwing coins in the Trevi Fountain in Rome is supposed to guarantee that a visitor will one day return to Rome—and given Rome’s popularity as a tourism destination, with 21 million tourists a year, it must work.
But those coins in the baroque fountain have a way of adding up: €1.4 million in 2022, and even more last year. The change is collected and donated to Caritas, a Catholic charity that uses the funds to run a food bank, soup kitchens and welfare projects.
The coins are retrieved every few days by workers for a local utility who perch on the edge of the fountain with long-handled booms and suction hoses. They are then taken to Caritas, which dries them using hairdryers.
