Visitors to Rome's Pantheon, an ancient temple-turned-church, will have to pay to visit the site from May next year, Italy's culture ministry announced on Monday. Tickets will cost €2 and will be introduced on May 2nd, 2018, so locals and those planning to visit the capital before then still have a chance to visit the site for free.

And even after the fees have been introduced, it will still be possible to attend religious services at the Pantheon without paying. The decision to charge visitors was first mooted in September last year, as The Local reported at the time, in order to help cover the high running costs of the monument -- one of the few ancient Roman sites in the capital which had not already introduced a fee.