Kiwi tourist banned for life from Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy

Tourists-behaving-badly season seems to have started early in Rome this year, with three visitors from New Zealand getting in trouble long before the summer sunshine could be blamed for giddy behaviour.

The trio were stopped as they started to wade into the famous Trevi Fountain in Italy, a frequent magnet for trouble when peak season crowds start to gather in the city.

As they were being escorted away from the area, one of the tourists, a 30-year-old man, wrestled free from the police and jumped into the fountain as the authorities gave chase, a spokesperson for Rome’s Capital Police said.

“Alcohol was definitely involved,” the spokesperson added.

He was fined €500 ($A836) and banned from visiting the Baroque landmark for life.

The Trevi Fountain, constructed in 1762 as the mouth of an aqueduct, underwent cleaning in 2024 at a cost of approximately $A540,000. It was drained so workers could repair marble chipped from the millions of coins thrown into the water each year.

Taking a dip in the fountain has been an aspiration for many tourists, inspired by Federico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita, during which Anita Ekberg waded into the waters in an evening gown, purring to her paramour, played by Marcello Mastroianni, to join her.

About a dozen tourists are fined for dipping everything from their toes to water bottles into the fountain each year, according to Roman police.

A greater number of would-be thieves are stopped trying to steal some of the €1.5 million ($A2.5 million) worth of coins that are thrown into the water each year. The money, which goes to charity, is collected daily.

In 2024, the city introduced a system to limit the number of visitors in front of the fountain to 400 at a time. The access area is open from 9am to 9pm daily and the city is considering introducing a small fee to enter.

The New Zealander bypassed the controlled area and entered the fountain by scrambling over the marble sculptures that line the basin.