- Canadian women's coach, two aides out after drone scandal
- Sinner turns aside Fritz to close in on ATP Finals last four
- Global stocks slip as markets take post-US election breather
- UN condemns 'acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes' in Gaza
- US bans flights to Haiti as gang violence rages
- Aga Khan emerald fetches record $9 mn in Geneva auction
- Venezuela crackdown helped avert 'civil war': attorney general
- Trump shapes team ahead of White House return
- Climate cash should also go to nuclear, says UN atomic chief
- Free Facebook in EU with less targeted ads
- Dupont set to be fit for New Zealand despite illness
- New balls, please, plead top men's tennis players
- Ban rules Radradra out of Fiji's final November internationals
- US contractor ordered to pay $42 mn to Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib
- Lame-duck US climate team vows to be 'effective' at COP29
- Painter Frank Auerbach, contemporary of Freud and Bacon, dies at 93
- UN carbon market inches closer after COP29 agreement
- US finalizes waste methane fine on drillers, but future uncertain
- Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre
- Trump tariff worries trip up stocks rally, dollar climbs
- Israel opens Gaza humanitarian crossing but aid groups say not enough
- 35 killed, dozens wounded in south China car ramming
- 'Carbon-neutral' countries demand credit at COP29
- FA investigates Premier League referee Coote over video rant
- Boeing expects post-strike output recovery to take several weeks
- Trump shapes cabinet ahead of White House return
- Blinken in emergency Brussels trip on Ukraine after Trump win
- All Blacks scrum-halves 'inspired' to play 'master' Dupont
- Medvedev sees off De Minaur to boost ATP Finals bid
- Lindt disputes US lawsuit claims, stands by 'excellence' labelling
- Trump tariff worries trip up stocks rally
- UK to beef up its emissions cuts as it bids to be 'climate leader'
- Nations to submit boosted climate plans: what's at stake?
- French footballer Ben Yedder gets suspended jail term for sexual assault
- Nuclear watchdog chief says room to manoeuvre on Iran 'shrinking'
- Russia jails doctor over alleged Ukraine comments during consultation
- EU vessels to cease fishing in Senegal after accord expires
- Bayer shares hit 20-yr low as problems pile up
- Russian MPs pass law banning 'propaganda' of childless lifestyles
- NATO 'must do more than just keep Ukraine in fight', says Rutte
- EU unity in a 'world on fire': Kallas makes top diplomat pitch
- UK vows to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81% on 1990 levels by 2035
- Crisis-hit Germany headed for February 23 snap election
- C.Africa urges lifting of embargo on diamond exports
- Poland hoping Swiatek can inspire BJK Cup 'revenge' against Spain
- Court challenge begins against UK oil and gas field approvals
- Stock markets retreat on Trump tariff worries
- Spain PM accused of 'blackmail' by tying budget to flood aid
- Lineker to leave Match of the Day after 26 years
- New EU chief diplomat backs Ukraine as bloc's top team faces grilling
RBGPF | 0.05% | 60.22 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.73% | 24.54 | $ | |
RYCEF | -2.37% | 7.16 | $ | |
RELX | -2.6% | 46.59 | $ | |
BP | -2.7% | 28.16 | $ | |
BTI | 0.26% | 35.24 | $ | |
VOD | -10.04% | 8.47 | $ | |
SCS | 0.15% | 13.67 | $ | |
NGG | -1.97% | 62.9 | $ | |
RIO | -2.29% | 61.2 | $ | |
GSK | -2.34% | 35.52 | $ | |
BCC | -1.42% | 141.13 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.85% | 24.75 | $ | |
AZN | 0.61% | 65.19 | $ | |
BCE | -0.58% | 27.69 | $ | |
JRI | -2.27% | 13.22 | $ |
Rome's Trevi Fountain unveils tourist catwalk during cleaning
A suspended walkway providing tourists an up-close view of Rome's Trevi Fountain was unveiled Saturday, a temporary addition while the famous "La Dolce Vita" site undergoes a cleaning.
The Baroque masterpiece constructed on the facade of a palace is one of the most popular sites in Rome for tourists, who strain over the crowds to throw their coins into its water.
While the fountain is being cleaned to remove limestone deposits and grime, however, the walkway positioned over its basin will accommodate some 130 people at a time to take a closer look.
That will give tourists "an experience not ruined by excessive crowding," said Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri.
"We wanted to give everybody the opportunity to admire the fountain and to do this from a unique perspective, because what you can see from the walkway, you will never be able to see normally," he said.
French tourist Franc Petretto, 50, was one of the first to walk across the passageway, calling the view "wonderful and very, very beautiful."
"Even without the water flowing inside the fountain, you can really see that the architecture is serious... and that's really very pleasing," he said.
Micaela di Caterina, a 32-year-old visiting from Argentina, agreed, saying the up-close look at the intricate sculptures of Oceanus, father of the river gods, and his sea-horses was "incredible".
Still, she acknowledged, it was "kind of weird" to be walking over the fountain.
- No coin toss -
The fountain -- where Anita Ekberg frolicked in Federico Fellini's 1960 film "La Dolce Vita" -- last got a thorough scrub a decade ago during an 18-month renovation sponsored by Fendi.
Then, too, the Italian fashion house installed a plexiglass bridge above the basin allowing tourists to still admire the fountain.
The current work involves removing limestone deposits on the fountain's facade, which can turn black with time, while removing loose material between stones where vegetation grows.
Tourists won't be allowed to toss coins over their shoulders into the fountain's basin -- where tradition has it that visitors who do so will return to Rome.
Instead, a small pool set up next to the walkway has been installed to receive spare change.
That pool "allows us to avoid throwing coins, which, without water, would damage the fountain," Gualtieri said, adding that anyone doing so would be fined.
It also allows the flow of donations to Rome's needy to continue.
Every week, authorities recuperated some 10,000 euros in coins from Trevi Fountain, which were donated to the Caritas charity to fund meals, said Gaultieri.
"We are proud not to have interrupted such an important work for those in difficulty," he said.
The walkway will be up until the cleaning is complete, sometime in December.
Gaultieri said city officials were still considering a possible ticketing system to control the crowds at Trevi Fountain once the cleaning is over.
Visitor numbers are expected to surge next year for the Jubilee, a holy year held by the Catholic Church around once every 25 years, with some 30 million people expected in Rome and the Vatican.
P.Anderson--BTB