Why Do People Throw Coins in the Trevi Fountain?

In front of the fountain you'll see the same gesture again and again: someone turns their back to the water and tosses a coin over their shoulder. It looks like a ritual as old as Rome itself. Let's see where it really comes from.

Where does the Trevi Fountain's water come from?

First, the water. The Trevi Fountain is the grand outlet of an ancient aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo, known in Italian as the Acqua Vergine. It was brought to Rome by Agrippa, the same man whose name you can read on the front of the Pantheon. According to Frontinus, who was in charge of Rome's water supply at the end of the first century AD, the water first reached the city on 9 June, 19 BC. It's the only one of ancient Rome's great aqueducts that has never stopped working.

Why "Virgin"? Frontinus records the explanation already doing the rounds in his day: a little girl showed some thirsty soldiers where to find springs while they were searching for water, and a painting in a small shrine by the source showed the scene. Rome's heritage authority, the Sovrintendenza, now thinks it more likely that the name refers to the purity of the water. But the legend is still up there on the façade: one of the upper reliefs shows the girl pointing out the springs to the soldiers, and the other shows Agrippa approving the plans for the aqueduct.

Even the name Trevi isn't settled. It may come from a local place name recorded since the twelfth century, or from the three spouts of the old fountain. Two theories, and no winner.

Who paid for the fountain? The lottery

The fountain you know wasn't the first. Bernini got as far as building a base in 1640, but the work was left half-done. In 1732 Pope Clement XII picked the design of a Roman architect, Nicola Salvi, because it got in the way least of the palazzo behind it. Bernini's work was knocked down.

How was it funded? With the proceeds of the papal lottery, money that came in by fits and starts. No income meant no work, and that's how thirty years went by. Salvi, paralysed by illness, died in 1751 without seeing it finished. Giuseppe Pannini completed it in 1762, reworking the rockwork and the central basins, changes that another architect of the day criticised. There was mockery too: an influential scholar poked fun at those who praised it more highly than if Michelangelo had made it.

There's an irony we enjoy, and it's our own reading: a fountain paid for with the luck of thousands of Romans ended up as the place where half the world tosses a coin for luck. And the lottery had its own stage nearby: from 1743, the numbers were drawn on the balcony of a palazzo in Piazza di Montecitorio.

Is it an ancient Roman tradition?

As far as we know, no. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American novelist, brought out The Marble Faun in 1860, with the story set in Rome. In one chapter, several characters walk to the fountain late at night under the moon. One of them must leave Rome soon, and the tradition comes up: "a parting draught at the Fountain of Trevi insures the traveller's return". They go down some steps to the edge and drink a sip from a cupped hand.

Notice what's missing: not a word about coins. The tradition Hawthorne came across in Rome was drinking. Fifteen years later, the guidebook writer Augustus Hare quoted Hawthorne in Walks in Rome and repeated the same thing: a drink before you leave.

Hawthorne also had his say on the fountain itself: his narrator calls the design absurd, the work of "some sculptor of Bernini's school" who "had gone absolutely mad in marble".

When did the coin tradition start?

Nine years after the novel, Baedeker's guide to Central Italy and Rome adds something new: "On quitting Rome the superstitious partake of the water of this fountain and throw a coin into the basin, in the pious belief that their return is thus ensured."

That's the earliest reference to the coin that we've come across. Earlier ones may exist; we can't say. Rome's Sovrintendenza calls it an "ancient tradition", but gives no date, and we know of no evidence that takes it back to Roman times.

Later Baedeker editions, from 1875, 1883 and 1900, repeat it. And the 1909 edition has a wonderful detail: it switches to the past tense. Travellers "used to" take a draught and throw a coin, as if the custom were dying out. One look at the people tossing coins today shows the guide spoke a little too soon.

Over time the drink fell away and the coin stayed, and these days it's thrown with your back to the fountain. In every version we've read, from the 1860 novel to the guidebooks of the early twentieth century, the wish behind it was the same: to come back to Rome.

Where does the Trevi Fountain money go?

The coins don't stay in the water for ever. They're taken out of the basin, washed and sorted, and anything that isn't in euros gets exchanged. And the money has somewhere to go: according to Caritas, the Diocese of Rome's charity, an agreement between the city council and the diocese means it ends up with them, and they spend it on the city's most vulnerable people. They spell it out: soup kitchens, solidarity supermarkets for families in need, outreach for people sleeping rough, help with rent and bills, healthcare.

So the wish to come back to Rome ends up, in a roundabout way, paying for meals in the city's soup kitchens. We won't give you figures, because they change from year to year; Caritas itself has published how much it receives and what it spends it on.

Fact or legend.

Fact: in 1860 the recorded custom was to drink a mouthful before leaving; the coin appears in writing in the 1869 Baedeker; the 1909 edition already puts it in the past tense; the fountain was paid for by the lottery and took thirty years; the coins are taken out of the basin and, under an agreement with the city, the money goes to Caritas in Rome, which explains how it's spent.

Legend: the girl who showed the soldiers the water, told as a tradition since Frontinus.

False, as far as we know: that throwing coins into the Trevi is an ancient Roman custom.

Unconfirmed: whether the coin was mentioned before 1869; and the story, much repeated today, of the stone vase Salvi supposedly put up to block the view of a fault-finding barber, for which we've found no early source.

Where to hear it

The Trevi Fountain is the end of the route "The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain", which sets off from the Villa Medici and follows the water downhill. At the fountain there are three stops: "Why is it called Trevi?", on the mystery of the name; "Thirty years of lottery money", with the girl in the relief and the architect who never saw his work finished; and "A coin or a drink?", the one this story comes from.

The lottery balcony features at the stop "The slow clock and the lucky balcony" on "The Pantheon, the Minerva and Piazza Colonna", Podtour's free route in Rome.

If you're planning your trip, our Rome guide has the practical side covered.

Why do people throw coins in the Trevi Fountain?

Where does the Trevi Fountain's water come from?

Who paid for the fountain? The lottery

Is it an ancient Roman tradition?

When did the coin tradition start?

Where does the Trevi Fountain money go?

Where to hear it

Further reading

Where to hear this story

The Pantheon, the Minerva and Piazza Colonna

The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain

Plan your time in Rome

Your first city,
on Podtour.

Your first city,
on Podtour.

Where does the Trevi Fountain's water come from?

Who paid for the fountain? The lottery

Is it an ancient Roman tradition?

When did the coin tradition start?

Where does the Trevi Fountain money go?

Where to hear it

Further reading

Where to hear this story

The Pantheon, the Minerva and Piazza Colonna

The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain

Plan your time in Rome

Your first city,on Podtour.

Your first city,on Podtour.

Your first city,
on Podtour.

Your first city,
on Podtour.