Many coins in the fountain

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

The city of Rome has given up trying to stop a man from collecting around $150,000 worth of coins per year from the Trevi fountain. Roberto Cercellatta has been wading into the famous Roman landmark at dawn nearly every day for the past 20 years, scooping up the coins tossed in by tourists. (Legend has it that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain, you will one day return to Rome.) The Supreme Court has ruled that the money is up for grabs, but unofficially it is supposed to go to charity. Yet every time the police try to stop the huge Cercellatta from taking it, he cuts himself with a knife so that he bleeds profusely, bellows like a wild animal, and frightens away tourists. “He is untouchable,” said a police spokesman.