Visitors must turn their backs to the monument and then toss a coin into the water with their right hand over their left shoulder, a move legend says guarantees their return to the Eternal City.
Thanks to the legend, tourists throw about 3,000 euros into the Trevi Fountain every day, which amounts to a million euros a year. But what happens to that money?
According to Euronews, the City of Rome sends a team of workers several times a year to collect a veritable small treasure from the fountain. Workers use brushes on the ends of long sticks to first sweep the coins into piles and then hose the money out of the fountain. The coins are then stored, under the watchful eye of the police.
According to the decision of the mayor of Rome, since 2001, all the money that ends up in the fountain is given to the Roman Caritas, and that money constitutes 15 percent of the organization’s annual budget.
The money collected is used to help the poor, such as funding soup kitchens, homeless shelters, free supermarkets and other similar projects
