Fee allows visit plus one photo posing with hand in Mouth of Truth.

Tourists must pay a €2 fee to visit Rome's Bocca della Verità, known in English as the Mouth of Truth, which was previously free.

The charge allows visitors to take one photograph at the marble sculpture which was made famous in the 1953 classic Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

The fee was introduced by the rector of the adjoining Basilica di S. Maria in Cosmedin, which is the custodian of the monument, and the funds raised will go towards renovating the eighth-century church.

Disabled visitors and children under ten are exempt from paying to visit the Mouth of Truth which is best known as an ancient lie detector.

According to the popular mediaeval legend, the monument's bearded face will bite the hand off anybody who has told a lie.