This happens with all the coins found in the Trevi Fountain in Rome the world

For hundreds of years, millions of visitors have flocked around the fountain in the Italian capital. Many of them flip a coin and wish for a better life, health or love every day.

If all those coins were allowed to remain, there would soon not be much of the fountain left to look at. Therefore, it is cleaned at regular intervals, according to Reuters, twice a week.

It goes to charity

The famous fountain is also emptied and cleaned twice a month.

The coins are then donated to Caritas, the charitable organization affiliated with the Catholic Church. There, the money was used, among other things, to build a food bank, soup kitchens, and social welfare projects.

In 2022, the organization received 1.4 million euros from the Fountain. This equates to about 16 million Swedish krona at today's exchange rate.

But the process is not entirely simple.

This is how coins are taken care of

Reuters wrote that the municipal water, energy and environment company Acea is the one that extracts the coins. They are balanced on the edge of the dry fountain with long brooms and suction hoses, and when the coins are then delivered to Caritas, they are dried using cutlery and hair dryers. Then they must be sorted and counted.

That the money is going to charity is clear from the signs around the fountain. It was appreciated by many of the visitors Reuters spoke to.

– I made a wish but I hope this money will also help fulfill other people's wishes, says Yola Cole from Brazil to the news agency.