News City

Rome mayor says Trevi Fountain coins to remain with Caritas charity

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

14 Jan, 2019

Rome mayor says city will also give charity coins from other fountains.

Rome's city administration has backtracked on its contentious plan to claim the coins tossed by tourists into the waters of the Trevi Fountain - estimated at up to €1.5 million a year - away from Catholic charity Caritas.

The widely expected u-turn follows a backlash after reports on 12 January that the city would take control of the coins from 1 April 2019, breaking a long-running agreement with Caritas, and directing the funds into municipal "assistance and solidarity projects."

The city's mayor Virginia Raggi told Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the Trevi Fountain coins would remain in the hands of Caritas, which since 2001 uses the swept-up change to provide help to the city's homeless people and families in financial difficulty.

Stating that "nobody ever thought of depriving Caritas of these funds", Raggi said that in addition to the Trevi coins, the city would give the charitable organisation coins collected from other Roman fountains, amounting to an annual total of €200,000.