── the ticket · 2026
The €2 ticket: who pays, who goes free, and where to buy
Who pays: anyone who doesn't live in Rome or the Città Metropolitana (the wider metropolitan area). The ticket is €2 and covers entry to the inner perimeter of the fountain. It started on 2 February 2026. The fountain is always visible from outside the perimeter without a ticket.
Who goes free: residents of Rome and the Città Metropolitana (show your ID card at access control); children under 6; disabled visitors and one companion; licensed tour guides with a valid badge; and holders of a valid Roma MIC Card. You show your proof of free entry at the ticket office; without it, you pay.
Where to buy: online on the official site, fontanaditrevi.roma.it (it hands you over to its ticket partner, Vivaticket); at Rome's Musei Civici (the city-run museums), the Tourist Info Points and authorized sales points, where cash and card are both accepted; or at the entrance on Via della Stamperia, card only. Tickets bought in advance are open, with no date or time, and can't be refunded.
Which queue: there are two. If you already have a ticket, are entitled to free entry or hold a MIC Card, go straight to the dedicated queue. Everyone else joins the queue to buy a ticket. That's the practical reason to buy online the night before.
── hours · winter 2026
Paid hours, and the days they change
Normal paid hours: Monday and Friday 11.30am to 10pm; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 9am to 10pm. Last entry is 9pm every day. The site warns that times can change for maintenance or public order.
Changed entry times listed for the coming weeks:
- Monday 9 November: entry from 2pm
- Monday 23 November: entry from 2pm
- Monday 7 December: entry from 2pm
- Monday 21 December: entry from 2pm
- Thursday 24 December: entry from 11.30am
- Friday 25 December: entry from 9am
- Monday 28 December: entry from 9am
- Tuesday 29 December: entry from 11.30am
Outside the paid hours the official site says the fountain stays visible for free, so early morning and after 10pm cost nothing.
── timing
The best time to visit the Trevi Fountain
Early morning is the general rule of thumb for any of Rome's big sights, and the fountain is no exception. On most days you can look from the piazza before the 9am start (11.30am on Mondays and Fridays), then come back later if you want to go down to the basin.
For the basin itself, the same general advice applies: try the first hour of paid entry or the last couple of hours before the 9pm last entry. The official site has a crowd gauge (Affluenza) built on average visitor numbers, so check it before you set off.
After dark, once the paid hours end, it costs nothing to look. In November and December the sun sets at around 4.40pm to 5pm, so you can see it after dark early in the evening.
How long: 20 to 30 minutes is plenty for the fountain itself, plus whatever the queue takes. Combine it with Vicus Caprarius next door, or walk on to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.
── the coins
The coin custom, and where the money goes
The custom is simple: throw one coin and you'll come back to Rome. Tradition adds a second and a third coin for love. Throwing a coin is the one exception to the ban on throwing objects into the fountain.
Where the money goes: the coins go to the Caritas di Roma, the charity of the diocese of Rome, which uses them for its work with people in poverty and hardship. Acea, the city's water company, collects them from the basin, as often as three times a week. In 2022 that came to more than 33,000 kg of coins, worth over €1.4 million.
── rules · fines
Rules and fines at the fountain
Fines of €40 to €240 (city ordinance 82/2017) for: pouring liquids or throwing any object other than the traditional coin; sitting, loitering, eating or drinking, climbing, or anything else at odds with what the fountain is for; and letting animals drink or washing animals or clothes.
A fine from €450 for bathing in the fountain or drawing water from it. Damaging the fountain, its base or the area around it can mean arrest for up to a year or a fine of at least €2,065 under the criminal code.
Dogs must be in a carrier, or on a lead and muzzled. Strollers can be left temporarily at access control while you go down the steps (there's no custody service); there's no cloakroom, so leave big bags at your hotel.
── the fountain
What you're looking at
The fountain is the 'mostra', the show front, at the end of the Acqua Vergine, the aqueduct built under Agrippa in ancient Rome. Pope Clement XII called a design competition in 1732; Nicola Salvi won it, and Giuseppe Pannini completed the work.
In the center, Oceanus rides a shell-shaped chariot pulled by two horses, one rearing and one calm, each held back by a triton. In the side niches stand Abundance and Health. The reliefs above show the legend of the aqueduct's name: on one side, a young girl (the 'virgin') pointing Roman soldiers to the spring; on the other, Agrippa ordering the aqueduct built.
The fountain was last restored in 2014–15, paid for by the fashion house Fendi. The church facing it across the piazza is Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio.
── getting there
Getting there
The nearest Metro (subway) station is Barberini on Line A, about five minutes' walk. From Termini, take Line A towards Battistini for two stops. Buses 30, 46, 60, 118 and 190F stop near Piazza Barberini and Piazza Venezia. The fountain is inside Rome's limited traffic zone (ZTL), so don't drive in.
The fountain sits between the Spanish Steps (about ten minutes' walk north) and the Pantheon (about ten minutes west), so it fits on any walk through the historic center. For the cost of the rest of your trip, see our Rome trip-cost guide, and for a base nearby, hotels near the Trevi Fountain or where to stay in Rome.
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