Luxury fashion brand Fendi began extensive restoration of the Trevi Fountain on Monday.

The nearly 300-year-old fountain is known for bringing good luck when visitors throw a coin into its waters with their backs turned. Rome’s famed fountain is now almost completely covered in scaffolding and drained of water, leaving visitors to toss their pennies into a temporary basin that has been placed at the rim of the fountain.

The fashion company also unveiled a suspended Plexiglas bridge above the fountain, as “a way to show people the fountain from a position no-one has been in before,” Fendi’s CEO Pietro Beccari told the AFP.

“The restoration works are invasive and will be disruptive for the thousands of tourists who come every day, but we thought the walkway would be the best way to show off the fountain,” Beccari said.

A picture shows a plexiglass bridge set up to visit the famous Trevi fountain during its restoration on June 30, 2014 in Rome. The fountain, built by Italian architect Nicola Salvi at Palazzo Poli in 1735 is fenced for restoration sponsored by Italian luxury fashion house Fendi. Photo by Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images.

The walkway allows tourists to get a closer perspective of the restoration, though the Baroque facade is mostly obscured. The repairs will cost €2.18 million ($2.98 million) and are planned to take 18 months, according to Beccari.

“Patronage is essential in maintaining and restoring our marvelous works of architecture, archaeology, and art,” Rome’s mayor Ignazio Marino commented while tossing a coin over his shoulder into the temporary basin. The Trevi Fountain was originally commissioned by Pope Clement XII in 1730, and is the the final point of an ancient Roman aqueduct. Fendi is also leading a restoration project on the Quattro Fontane, which can be found at the corners of one of the city’s busy intersections.