BROWN: So this really cool story happened today in Rome, and we wanted to add our two cents worth, as you will see.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marcello, come here!</s>BROWN: Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita." Ever since the world saw these two dreamily wading through the Trevi Fountain in Rome, tourists have flocked to the place, throwing in coin after coin after coin to bring themselves love and good luck. The fountain has become the world's most beautiful piggy bank, and, really, where hip-deep performances are concerned, you'd think you couldn't possibly top this. Ah, but you underestimate the Italian man-in-the-street, or, rather, the Italian man-in-the-water. That fellow there is Roberto Cercelletta. For years, he and a couple of cronies have had tacit permission to harvest the fountain's coins most days of the week, with a church charity getting the money on their day off. But then a newspaper reported that Cercelletta and the others were taking in nearly $600 a day. Basta, said the government. Enough. Signor Cercelletta stripped off his shirt in protest. He ranted and he raved and he railed against the fates. He threatened to kill himself, but scaled back on that threat a bit, just touching his stomach with something sharp enough to bring a little color to it. Ah, what a performance this! He was to the betrayed coin-scoopers what Pavarotti is to opera, the greatest of them all, larger than life. Finally the police talked him out of the water, but to us, now, and forevermore, the Trevi Fountain will always mean Mastroianni and Ekberg and Fellini and Cercelletta.
Italian Man Cuts His Own Belly at Famous Roman Fountain