The Trevi Fountain: raises over 1.5 million dollars per year

The legend says that if you throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain, you will return to Rome.

Fontana de Trevi
The Passage Of A Trevi Fountain Coin ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 28: A Caritas employee counts bags of coins collected at the Trevi Fountain November 28, 2005 in Rome, Italy. Tourists from all over the world come to Rome's Trevi fountain to throw coins and make a wish. Once a week the coins, that are worth around $ 600, 000 a year, are collected, cleaned, weighed, enumerated and devolved from Rome's Municipality to Caritas, an International Catholic NGO (Non Governmental Organization) that use them to support a shelter that host twenty-five AIDS patients in Rome. Four cleaners in charge of collecting the coins were arrested on November 20, 2005 after being caught in possession of coins worth 1,200 euros. Police say the thieves may have pocketed as much as 110,000 euros during the course of the year. The fountain was built by the architect Salvi (1735) in the time of Pope Clement XII, and decorated by several artists of Bernini's school. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images) (Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
Por Adrialis Barrios

The Trevi Fountain is an iconic and historically rich site in Italy, but it is also one of the most photographed locations on Instagram in the world.

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During the summer season, the wave of tourists visiting the 18th-century masterpiece is constant.

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Legend of the Trevi Fountain

The legend says that you must follow a specific tradition if you want to return to Rome. Supposedly, if you throw a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder, you will return to Rome at some point in your life.

The tradition has been followed to the letter for hundreds of years and everyone makes a wish before throwing a coin into the fountain.

Where does the money thrown into the Trevi Fountain go?

It is known that the coins are collected twice a week and this money goes to charity donations, as detailed by the signs around them.

Reuters explains that the "coin extraction is a spectacle," as "workers from the regional public utility company ACEA balance on the edge of the huge baroque fountain, using long brooms and suction hoses."

"The collection and cleaning operations are carried out as quickly as possible in an attempt to reduce the downtime of the source," explains Francesco Prisco, ACEA's manager.

This is how the coins are collected at the Trevi Fountain

Prisco indicated that the coins are swept up with a long broom and then "sucked up by hoses and taken to the Caritas office, where they are spread out on a huge table to dry," according to a NY Post article.

The donation is made to Caritas, a non-profit organization run by the Catholic Church, and they use this money to finance a food bank, a soup kitchen, and social assistance projects in Rome.

Reuters reported that in 2022 Caritas raised 1.4 million euros (1.5 million US dollars) from the water and expects to have raised even more in 2023.

Fontana di Trevi
Italy Braces For More Extreme Heat ROME, ITALY - AUGUST 10: People refresh themself because off high temperatures around 39 degrees Celsius, at Fontana Di Trevi, on August 10, 2021 in Rome, Italy. With the arrival of the 'Lucifer' anticyclone from Africa, Italy braces for the hottest week of summer. The soaring temperatures have led Italy's civil protection agency to warn of increased risks of wildfires. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images) (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)

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