Welcome to our new series, Travel-Dealz recommends…. Here, editorial members share personal impressions from their travels, so you too can experience something special, extraordinary, or bizarre. Felix kicks things off, with a unique sight he encountered on a trip to Rome:
When I first flew to Rome with a good friend in 2016, we stayed in a hotel far outside the city with rather poor train connections. To see as much of the Eternal City as possible, we took an early train to the central station, Roma Termini. Our first destination that morning was the famous Trevi Fountain, which, with its impressive marble statues, is just one of many A++ attractions in the Italian capital.
Interestingly, our early arrival (around 8:30 AM) not only had the effect of avoiding crowds of tourists. In the water of the fountain, a grotesque scene unfolded: Several men, wearing rubber boots and pants, were standing in the water, sweeping together the coins thrown in and vacuuming them out. My most recent visit a few weeks ago confirmed that this practice has not changed, even after the pandemic.
Even though it ruins the classic photo opportunities: anyone who visits the Trevi Fountain between 8 and 10 AM can witness this demystifying scene for themselves. Slightly sleepy men, using ordinary pool cleaning equipment, boredly performing a banal yet necessary task against the backdrop of world-famous art — wonderfully surreal.
The fountain is cleared of the previous days’ coins on Mondays and Fridays. The city of Rome, which donates the collected money to Caritas, estimates the retrieved amount to be about €800,000 to €1,000,000 per year.