Tourist Caught Climbing on Trevi Fountain to Fill Water Bottle — Watch the Video

16.08.2023 - 18:13 / travelandleisure.com

With Italy experiencing a record heat wave this summer, it's understandable that tourists will seek any type of relief from the high temps. However, one tourist’s extreme way to beat the heat is making headlines for the wrong reasons. This week, a video, that's now gone viral, shows a person trespassing and climbing on the historic Trevi Fountain in Rome to casually fill a bottle with water. The video, which has been circulated on social media, shows the incident and ends with a security official blowing a loud whistle and moving towards the tourist, signaling that they need to leave immediately.  The incident has left onlookers — and the internet — shaking their heads. 

It was unclear if the visitor faced consequences.

Described as “the most famous of the Roman fountains: a jewel of water and stone” by Rome’s tourism website, the Trevi Fountain, built n 1762, is visited by millions of tourists annually. The Trevi Fountain is located on Piazza di Trevi in Rome's city center — east of the Pantheon and northwest of the Colosseum.  Unfortunately, this is not the first time this year that people have trespassed inside of the historic Italian fountain or other historical landmarks in Italy.  In May 2023, climate activists dumped charcoal into the Trevi Fountain in a protest, leaving the fountain to be drained and cleaned — wasting over 300,000 liters of water, according to a social media post from the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri. 

Additionally, this summer, a person carved names into Rome’s historic Coliseum, writing “Ivan+Haley 23” into the 2,000 year old building. Similar acts of vandalism have been documented and reported over the last several years, including a September 2020 incident where a man visiting from Ireland etched his initials into the Coliseum’s stone.