More than $1 million collected every year from Rome’s Trevi Fountain goes to help the city's poor

Countless people every year throw coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Have you ever wondered where all this money goes? You will be amused to know that more than €1 million (approximately $1,059,390) from there goes to feed, clothe and house the city's poor, as reported by Good News Network. 

The beautiful fountain was completed in 1762 and made with marble. It is one of the most iconic sites, thronged by thousands of tourists every day. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. It represents the taming of waters. It is said that the statue on top is of Oceanus the sea god who is riding a shell chariot of seahorses and all around are shells, coral, fishes, and other things from the sea. According to tradition, tourists stand with their backs to the fountain and toss a coin over their left shoulder with their right hand. The act basically is to guarantee that the person will be coming back to the Eternal City. It was started from the 1954 movie, "Three Coins in the Fountain" where three American women living in Rome wish for love in the city upon the Trevi fountain.

Reportedly, more than €1 million is taken from the fountain every year by sweeping all the coins together and using a suction machine to get them out. Precisely €3000 in coins are left behind in the water. In 2001, the mayor decided that the money should go to a local charity to stop the frequent attempts of stealing coins from the fountain, according to Euronews. Since then, the collected amount goes to a charity called Caritas which is managed by the Catholic church. The money is used for funding soup kitchens, homeless shelters, free supermarkets, and other projects. Moreover, the money is also used to upkeep a complex on the outskirts of Rome which has a nursing home, canteen, and dental office for people living in poverty. 

Talking about a good cause, a man in Chicago is beautifying the city by fixing unwanted potholes in the most artistic way. He uses glass and marble mosaic instead of simply leaving it filled up with cement and concrete, according to The Washington Post. Jim Bachor said, "Everybody hates potholes - doesn’t matter who you are, young, old, rich, poor. So you’re walking down the street and you expect it’s a nasty asphalt street that’s pockmarked and whatnot. And then you might happen to see tulips, maybe, where there shouldn’t be. And so it’s just that little bit of unexpected joy, which is kind of a fun thing for me."

He started doing it in 2013, and back then he used to install the phrase "pothole" in black and white marble in a road divot in Chicago. He said that people loved it and thought it was funny. Now, he cuts hundreds of pieces of Italian glass and marble to create somewhat controversial mosaics. He does it all by himself. Bachor said, "I decided to turn my hobby into a bit of a Robin Hood thing. If I had to ask for permission, I wouldn’t be doing this."