Tourists regularly throw their smartphones into the Trevi Fountain

Image: Wikipedia

I'll keep this short but I found it quite amusing. Rome's Trevi Fountain is often completely swamped by tourists who want to throw coins into it and make a wish I guess. There are so many people there on occasions that it's impossible for those standing around it behind the crowds to safely throw a coin into the fountain because it might strike the back of the head of somebody in front of them!

But remarkably The Times reports that local officials in Rome, about once a day, visit the local bakery to borrow a pincher arm meant for reaching high shelves and they use it to fish phones out of the fountain when tourists try to take a photo of themselves throwing a coin over their shoulder but get their arms mixed up.

Here is the catch: A proper Trevi coin toss is done using your right hand to throw the coin over your left shoulder. That's were the confusion comes from.

You get the message don't you? They want to throw the coin with their right arm but I guess in the pandemonium and confusion caused by the required method they throw their phone with their left arm. The phone is in their left hand in order to video their right arm throwing the coin into the fountain. That's it. I think it's very strange but amusing. And clearly quite a lot of very nice smartphones are being destroyed in the Trevi Fountain every day! 

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.