Photo Credit (Freepik)
Nearly €1 million in coins that are tossed into Rome’s well-known Trevi Fountain each year are collected and used to provide housing, food, and clothing for the city’s impoverished.
Rome’s Trevi Fountain
One of the most well-known fountains in the world and the largest Baroque fountain in the city is the 18th-century marble fountain at Piazza di Trevi. The Palazzo Poli serves as the fountain’s backdrop. Its massive order of Corinthian pillars connects the building’s two major stories. The massive plan that tumbles forward, combining rockwork and water, has the concept of taming the waves, with Tritons steering Oceanus’s shell chariot.
Throughout the year, a lot of people visit this location, where there is a custom that says you will eventually return to the Eternal City if you spin around and throw a coin over your left shoulder with your right hand while facing the fountain.
The 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain, which tells the story of three American ladies living in Rome who hope for love in the city, served as the inspiration for the practice. The movie was nominated for Best Picture at the 27th Academy Awards in 1955 and won two Academy Awards: Best Song (by Frank Sinatra) and Best Cinematography.
As a result, coins valued more than €1 million ($1 million) are tossed into its waters annually; these coins are then gathered and donated to charitable organizations.
This significant yearly income goes to Caritas, a Catholic church-run charity that funds soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and free supermarkets. Additionally, it supports the maintenance of a complex on Rome’s outskirts that houses a dental clinic, nursing home, and canteen for low-income city dwellers.
