A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Instead a man threw a bucket of red paint into Rome’s Trevi Fountain on Friday, coloring the waters of the 18th-century monument bright red in front of an astonished crowd.
The man escaped, leaving a box containing leaflets, referring to Futurist that claimed responsibility for the act: The red paint was a protest for expenses incurred in organizing the Rome Film Festival and symbolically referred to the event’s red carpet, ANSA reported.
The monument, at the juncture of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the “modern” Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. Designed by architect Nicola Salvi with Bernini’s touch, the Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present bland allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and “Trivia”, the Roman virgin.
Black and white movie lovers will for sure remember this fountain for a glamorous Anita Ekberg’s bathing into the fountain in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita:
