In a city of ancient monuments, it's one of the most impressive and most visited. The Trevi Fountain is the endpoint of an ancient Roman aqueduct that has brought water to Rome for around 400 years. Renovated under Pope Clement XII in the 1700s to make the site more dramatic, it is now one of the world's most famous fountains. Millions of people visit every year to throw a coin with their right hand over their left shoulder for good luck — an act that is also said to ensure that you'll one day return to Rome. And in one of the world's tourist capitals, the endless stream of people means an endless stream of coins plopping into the pale blue water and settling at the bottom. Coins are pulled out once a month by city workers as they clean it, totalling over a million euros per year. Traditionally the money goes to a Catholic charity for the poor and homeless called Caritas. But in a city with crumbling infrastructure, local government has a new purpose in mind for all those coins. Mayor Virginia Raggi has proposed that the money now be used on infrastructure projects in the city, a move agreed upon by city councillors. The change is supposed to come into effect in April. But local headlines accuse the mayor of taking money from the hands of the city's poorest. "We did not foresee this outcome," said Caritas director Father Benoni Ambarus in an interview with Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference. "I still hope it will not be final." Another story on the controversy that ran in the newspaper was headlined, "Money taken from the poorest". Trevi Fountain has been featured in multiple films, including "Three Coins in the Fountain" from 1954 and Fellini drama "La Dolce Vita".<doc-sep>Throw a coin over your shoulder into Rome's Trevi Fountain, the legend says, and it will bring you good fortune and you will one day return to the Eternal City. It is an essential tradition for millions of tourists. But few will have suspected their loose change would also spark a bitter row between Rome's secular authorities and the Catholic Church. Traditionally, the €1.5 million (£1.3 million) of coins scooped out of the stunning Baroque fountain each year are actually destined for the Catholic charity, Caritas, to help the city’s poor and homeless. Now Rome’s Mayor, Virginia Raggi, says the €4,000 (£3,600) worth of coins tossed into the fountain every day belong to her administration. From April 1 the donations will no longer be paid to Caritas, but are to be used by Rome City Council for the maintenance of cultural sites and social welfare projects. The proposed changes, reportedly approved by the council at the end of December, have provoked a backlash from the Catholic Church. Avvenire, the daily paper produced by the Italian Bishops Conference, launched a scathing attack on the council in its Saturday edition, describing the city’s bureaucracy as “the enemy of the poor” in a front-page article headlined “money taken from the poorest”.<doc-sep>The nearly $1.7 million in coins tossed in annually by tourists and then fished out of Rome’s iconic Trevi fountain ignited a brief battle between the city and the Catholic Church. Last month, the city council decided the coins collected from the famous landmark would be used to help the city’s crumbling infrastructure – controversially ending an 18-year practice to donate the money to a local Catholic charity. “The gift that comes from the Trevi Fountain in Rome is a rain of coins that creates a sea of good,” the Rev. Benoni Ambarus, the director of the charity, called Caritas, told Italian newspaper Avvenire on Saturday. “I refused to think about closing services for the poor. I still hope that the trust in Caritas will be reconfirmed, that we will be able to find a way that intertwines reasonableness, solidarity and the joy of coin tossing, to keep this network of help alive.” 8 TOURISTS BRAWL AT ROME’S TREVI FOUNTAIN OVER SELFIE SPOT The decision, which would have gone into effect on April 1 and was touted by Rome’s Mayor Virginia Raggi, slashed about 15 percent of the charity’s yearly expenses that are used to fund soup kitchens, social assistance programs and a homeless shelter, among other activities, he said. However, on Monday, after several days of backlash from the church, the charity and its supporters, Raggi reversed course. She told the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, that it was all a misunderstanding and Caritas would continue to receive the money fished out of the Trevi fountain, and would also receive the coins tossed into any of the city’s historic water features. “No one ever thought about depriving Caritas of these funds,” she told the newspaper on Monday. “The diocesan agency plays an important role for many needy and for the city of Rome, which wants to continue to be the capital of welcome for the weakest.” Instead, she said, the city needs to ensure an accurate count of the money and instead of having Caritas volunteers sort and count the coins, the city will entrust the city’s department responsible for cleaning and maintaining the famous fountain. She said this would bring “order and transparency” to the process. “Now, however, tourists and citizens will finally know how much is collected and who is destined. And Caritas will also be able to plan its charitable activities more easily,” Raggi said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP This is not the first time Raggi has tried to use the funds from the fountain for the city. In 2017 she touted a similar plan to the cash-strapped city, but it was suspended following widespread criticism. The idea of fishing out the coins from the iconic fountain and giving them to Caritas dates back to 2001. The Trevi fountain, commissioned by Pope Clement X11 in 1732, is visited by millions of tourists every year. The tradition of tossing the coins in was popularized with Frank Sinatra’s 1954 romantic comedy “Three Coins in the Fountain.”<doc-sep>
Rome, Italy -- Each day, some $3,500 in coins are thrown into Rome’s Trevi Fountain by tourists making wishes. This scene, made famous by the 1954 film "Three Coins in the Fountain," has been a windfall for a local charity. But a leaked document suggesting Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi's administration may want to keep those coins for the city’s empty coffers caused confusion -- and concern from many of the charity's supporters. After a weekend of social media outrage, Raggi said on Monday that the money will remain with local Catholic charity Caritas Rome, a plan that has been in place since 2001, when then-Mayor Francesco Rutelli put a stop to the unauthorized private collection of coins. "I confirm that [the coins] will remain available to the charitable activities of the diocesan body," Raggi told L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, in Italian. "No one has ever thought of depriving Caritas of these funds." For nearly two decades, the city periodically emptied the fountain, bagged the coins and, in the presence of the Rome police, delivered them to the Caritas Rome offices where they were separated, counted and deposited in their bank account. The money -- about 15 percent of Caritas Rome’s annual budget -- has gone to support soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other projects that help Rome’s poor communities. Raggi’s administration first proposed using the Trevi coins for Rome’s infrastructure and cultural heritage in 2017. But the idea was immediately attacked by opposition politicians and the church and was postponed for a year. The mayor had called for a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday to finalize a new plan on where the money should be allocated. In a headline this weekend, The Avvenire, a paper associated with the Italian Catholic Bishops conference, wrote that Raggi's reported plan to keep the coins for the city amounted to "Money Taken from the Poorest." Caritas Rome posted a statement of gratitude on its Facebook page to all those who have challenged the mayor’s plan to redirect the money from the poor back to the city. Raggi and her administration, which was elected in 2016, have been under fire for failing to get the city’s finances in order. Earlier this month, the head of the Association of School Principals warned in a letter to the mayor that schools would need to be closed if the city didn’t improve trash collection –- made worse when a suspicious fire in December destroyed one of the city’s main incinerators. In October, thousands protested with complaints of poor condition of the Rome streets, an unreliable public transit system and filthy conditions due to piles of uncollected garbage.