Italy 2026: Trevi Fountain Fee, Winter Olympics and a Busy Travel Year

Italy is having a landmark year in 2026, and travellers planning a trip should know about two changes in particular — one small, one large. The small one: the Trevi Fountain in Rome now charges a modest admission fee of around two euros to step into the immediate viewing area. After years of overcrowding around one of the world's most photographed monuments, the city introduced the charge to manage the flow of visitors and fund upkeep.

It is a tiny sum, and the goal is a calmer, more pleasant experience at the fountain rather than the elbow-to-elbow crush of recent summers. Visitors can still admire and photograph the Baroque masterpiece; the fee simply helps regulate how many people crowd the steps at once.

The large change is that Italy is co-hosting the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, centred on Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. This is wonderful if you love winter sport and the buzz of a global event — but it also means northern Italy, and especially the mountain resorts, will be exceptionally busy during the Games period. Accommodation books out far in advance and prices rise sharply around the event.

If your trip is not specifically about the Olympics, it is worth either travelling outside the Games window or focusing on other parts of the country. Italy is wonderfully varied: while the north hosts the world's athletes, regions like Puglia, Sicily, Umbria and the Amalfi area offer sunshine, food and history with a very different rhythm.

Italy is also part of the EU's new digital border system, so non-EU visitors will complete the same quick biometric registration on first arrival as elsewhere in the Schengen Area. Rome, Milan and Venice airports are all equipped for it. As across Europe, allowing a little extra time at the border during the busy season is sensible.