Tears & Tantrums at the Trevi Fountain

Many world-class attractions in the world come with a mandatory tourist tradition. At Blarney Castle in Ireland, one must kiss the Blarney Stone to gain the gift of eloquence. When visiting the Louvre in Paris, taking a photo with the glass pyramid in the palm of your hand or dangling from your fingers is obligatory. And when in Rome, one cannot pass up the opportunity to toss a coin over the shoulder into the Trevi Fountain to guarantee a return trip to the Eternal City.

But when we were in Rome, we were denied the coin-tossing tradition.

I blame the fuzziness on disappointment.

Not gonna lie - I was pretty much at the point of tears when I came around the corner and saw all the scaffolding. The magnificent Trevi Fountain was undergoing renovations (anticipated to finish in Fall 2015). A television screen was playing footage of what the Trevi Fountain looks like with water in it, and a small marble basin sat near the construction site for tourists to toss a coin over their shoulders. But that's like waving an ice cream cone beneath the nose of a diabetic. It just makes you feel worse about not getting the real deal.

While Danny lingered around the square to take a few pictures of the site, I retreated back down the alley from which we came, ready to go back to the hotel and lick my wounds. Other English-speaking tourists were also voicing disappointment, and I felt particular kinship to a toddler throwing a temper tantrum nearby. It's hard traveling halfway around the world only to have a site closed for renovations, isn't it, little guy? Then again, maybe the tantruming toddler was just upset because he dropped his gelato cone...

Let's just hope the fountain is flowing and bubbling by the time I get around to returning to Rome!

Have you ever traveled somewhere only to discover that a site was closed for some reason? How did/do you handle it?

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