The Trevi Fountain is one of Rome ‘s most popular monuments; millions of visitors every year turn their back to the fountain and throw a coin over their shoulders into the water pool ( the legend has it that by tossing a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome).
An estimated 700,000 euros are collected each year by the charity Caritas which uses the money to feed the poor.
But sometimes the coins end up in the pocket of a certain D’Artagnan (named after the famous musketeer) who starts to fish the coins out of the fountain long before the arrival of the Caritas personnel!! Metropolitan police usually do not intervene because according to Italian law the coins belong to nobody and, theoretically, Mr D’Artagnan has the right to collect them!