A tourist has become the subject of the internet’s ire after a video of her dipping her water bottle into Rome’s Trevi Fountain for a drink went viral.
The video, shared by witness Lex Jones, was taken last month at the popular tourist attraction, which was packed with other onlookers enjoying the day.
As the video begins, a woman in a blue shirt, blue baseball cap and white pants can be seen balancing on stones left of the fountain’s center, holding a bottle under a cascade of water to fill it.
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The fountain, considered a “late Baroque masterpiece” according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is one of Rome’s most revered symbols. The historic site is surrounded by notices advising onlookers not to touch, climb or use it as a water source, Lex Jones told newswire Storyful.
“There were signs all over saying that’s not allowed,” she told the news service. “I was just like, wow, this is crazy so I started videoing it.”
As the video continues, the woman can be seen crossing back over the fountain’s stones as the crowd stares. As the woman makes it back to the fountain’s edge and jumps down, a security guard in a high-vis vest confronts the woman, who is seemingly confused.
“[The woman] kept trying to explain her side and didn’t really understand why she was in trouble,” Jones told Storyful.
The trespasser is then escorted away as onlookers watch.
A TikTok of the incident, which racked up 1.3 million views, received thousands of comments in multiple languages, most of which express confusion or distaste for the woman’s actions.
“What was she thinking?” multiple comments read, while others question if the water was even drinkable in the first place. Others shared their own experiences visiting the fountain and witnessing tight security, one saying, “When I was there, they screamed from the other side when people even got near the water.”
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What is the Trevi Fountain?
Located in Rome, Italy, the Trevi Fountain is a Baroque-era feat of architecture found in Rome’s Trevi district, in front of Palazzo Poli palace, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
The site on which it stands once housed another fountain, which was demolished in the 17th century to make way for a new structure. Nicola Salvi won a design competition to fill the space in 1732 and began a grand construction which incorporated the front of the palace, natural rock formations and statues of mythological characters.
The fountain took 30 years to complete and was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini after Salvi’s death in 1751.
Standing 85 feet tall and 160 feet wide, the fountain was once revered as the best water source in Rome, supplying the Vatican itself with weekly barrels of water for centuries. However, the water is now considered undrinkable.
The Trevi Fountain is also home to a popular legend which dictates those who throw coins in the water are destined to return to Rome. Today, the city collects the thrown coins on a daily basis and donates them to charity.
