Trevi Fountain in Rome. Once you manage to work your way through the massive crowd, it is customary to throw coins into the fountain over your shoulder.

We both threw one each.

I’d heard of Trevi Fountain; it was on our list of things to see in Rome, but I had no idea what it was (besides being a fountain, obviously), where it was, or why I wanted to see it. When we first arrived in Rome, we took the subway from the main (Termini) station to Barberini station.

As we exited the subway, we were immediately facing a statue which, for some reason, assume was Trevi Fountain. If you know Rome at all, you’ll know it’s not, but I’ll continue. We found our hotel and the next morning passed by the statue. It was then I found the fountain we’d seen is actually one of Triton, not the famous fountain.

A day or two later, we came across Trevi Fountain (whether by luck, design or intent I cannot remember) and the difference is staggering. Trevi Fountain may not look large in the photo (I hope it does), but it’s a few stories high and incredibly wide. It is also totally surrounded by people sitting, standing, pushing and taking photos.

Normally I’d remove the people from this shot, but I intentionally left them in to try and get a feel of what it’s like to be there, and to try and give you a sense of scale (look at the people at the left of shot). It’s huge! What’s surprising is that the other side of the fountain is just a regular building (like the one on the right). I think it was a government or city administrative building, but one can’t be sure.