Here, once upon a time, there was a real city. Or at least a piece of it, a square. But around the crowded edge of the famous Trevi Fountain in mid-March, at the start of Rome's long tourist season, there was one detail that could confirm that everything had changed, that the city had disappeared, and that what was left was only a fantasy.

The crowd pushed up against a long barrier set up in December to organize the flow of people in front of the pool, which was glittering with coins. It's one of Rome's most famous monuments, a Baroque masterpiece from the 18^th century, and it is being transformed into an attraction that visitors could soon have to pay to see: The city is considering asking visitors to pay €2 for access. Although this would bring welcome order to the tourist chaos, the most disillusioned Romans see it as a harbinger of the definitive transformation of their city center into an amusement park. A place where ordinary city dwellers no longer belong.

The sound of whistles rang out. Security guards around the fountain chastised tourists with tired legs who wanted to sit on the edge after taking their selfies. "Sometimes we feel like we're looking after a flock of sheep. They don't even see us. They don't even look at the fountain, only through their phone screen," said a security guard with resignation (he wanted to remain anonymous). He suddenly stopped, to call out, "Get down please!" to some American tourists lingering at the top of the stairs. For a rest, tourists should go to the benches of the Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio church, just opposite, where weary-looking Latin American nuns sell holy images and plastic rosaries. In the Rome of today, the freedom of Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni, the lovers in Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, who embraced in the fountain one summer night in 1959, is more than ever a dream.

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