Italian media widely reported on Monday that the fee was set to be introduced in the new year after Rome tourism councillor Alessandro Onorato discussed the plans in detail on Rai Radio1.
Onorato said the city was planning "separate entry lanes" for Rome residents, who will enter free, and tourists who will be able to pay the fee by credit card.
"If the Trevi Fountain were in America or any other European location, they would have made you pay 50 euros," he told the Un Giorno da Pecora show, saying €2 was "the minimum" they could ask for access to one of the world's most famous monuments.
But city hall sources later told Ansa that this was "only a working hypothesis," stressing that no dates had been decided.
A meeting is expected between Thursday and Friday to finalise details, Roma Today reported, followed by a press conference before Christmas.
The proposal has long been under discussion, with tourism officials repeatedly floating the idea of restricting access to the monument.
It aims to manage overwhelming visitor numbers while generating revenue for maintenance at the monument. Rome's city council has estimated the entry fee could generate around €20 million annually.
READ ALSO: Rome mulls charging tourists to visit Trevi Fountain in bid to cut crowds
The fountain recorded 5.3 million visitors in the first half of 2025 alone, exceeding the Pantheon's total for the entire year.
The plan for crowd control comes after years of incidents involving unruly tourists swimming in the fountain, carving their names into its stonework, and diving off the monument.
Limits already in place
Rome is already limiting access to the fountain to 400 people at a time following restoration work completed in December 2024. The new ticketing system would build on these existing measures.
During a three-month cleaning operation, a temporary walkway allowed 130 visitors at a time to view the fountain up close while maintenance teams removed limestone deposits and grime.
The city has been looking at introducing a booking system alongside the entry fee, though Onorato acknowledged the technical challenges of implementing such a system at an open-air monument in the heart of the historic centre.
"We are working on it, we are reasoning about it, we are studying it," he said of the booking mechanism.
Following the Pantheon model
The Trevi Fountain fee would follow the precedent set by the Pantheon, which introduced a €5 entry charge for non-residents in July 2023. That measure has been credited with bringing more orderly access to the ancient temple and new funds for its upkeep.
The Pantheon fee had faced years of delays before finally being implemented, suggesting the Trevi proposal could also take time to come into force.
However, the Trevi plan has drawn criticism from consumer groups like Codacons, which has opposed the ticket while supporting the continued use of crowd limits at the fountain.
The final details of the entry system, including the confirmed launch date and practical implementation, were still being worked out by city officials at the time of writing.
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