- In a recent video, a tourist was seen climbing into the Trevi Fountain to fill her water bottle.
- According to an onlooker, she appeared to believe that her actions were harmless when confronted by a guard.
- This summer, Rome faced multiple incidents involving tourists breaking laws and vandalizing historic sites.
A woman was caught on camera climbing into Rome’s Trevi Fountain to fill her water bottle, adding to the increasing number of incidents involving unruly tourists at historic sites in Italy this summer.
The video, recorded on July 18 by a witness named Lex Jones and obtained by news agency Storyful, shows the woman walking on rocks to reach the center of the iconic attraction.
She proceeds to fill her bottle from a spout in the fountain, but is then confronted by a guard who blows a whistle and escorts her out of the area.
“There were numerous signs indicating that such behavior was prohibited,” Jones informed Storyful.
The tourist seemed unaware of her wrongdoing and attempted to justify her actions to the guard, according to Jones.
It is unclear whether the tourist was fined or arrested. The State Police did not respond immediately due to it being outside regular business hours.
Just a few weeks earlier, another tourist provoked local authorities by swimming in the Trevi Fountain on July 28 while wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts, as reported by Italian daily Corriere Della Serra.
Onlookers reportedly applauded and cheered for the swimmer.
Alessandro Onorato, Rome’s Councilor for Major Events, Sport, Tourism, and Fashion, referred to the incident as “pure barbarism” and emphasized the need for more than just fines and appeals to common sense to control tourist behavior.
He called for assistance from the Italian Ministries of Culture and the Interior in enforcing the rules against drinking and bathing in historic fountains, which were established by law in 2018.
Some authorities attribute such behavior to a scene from the 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” where actors Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni are seen wading in the Trevi Fountain.
In addition to the water bottle incident, two separate teenage tourists made headlines in July for defacing the Colosseum.
