Dapper as always in their bleached white shirts and matching caps, members of Rome's municipal police force were out on the Spanish Steps one warm autumn day, trolling for offenders.
"Stefano, look! There's another eater," one officer said to another before sauntering over to a baffled couple who had begun munching on an inoffensive-looking meai while sitting on the steps. The culprits, a couple of foreign tourists, had settled down on the landmark, one of Rome's most famous. In their hands were the offending items: sandwiches.
The officers pounced, and after much waving of hands, the couple wrapped up the sandwiches and slouched away, looking sheepish.
They were in violation unwittingly, in ali probability - of a municipal ordinance that went into force this month. The measure outlaws eating and drinking in areas of "particular historie, artistic, architectonic and cultural value" in Rome's center, to better protect the city's monuments, which include landmarks like the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps. Fines range ali the way up to $650 for culinary recidivists.
Italian cities, Rome included, have long enacted ordinances and regulations to protect monuments from ill- mannered tourists (and residents). But after a recent stroll through the city center, where he saw several people making themselves at home, literally, Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, decided the rules needed toughening.
"There were people camped out, and we weren't able to move them," said Antonio Gazzellone, the municipal council member responsible for tourism, noting that alcohol may have been involved. The new ordinance, which also outlaws camping or "setting up makeshift beds," will "give monuments back their proper decorum," he said. "Rome needs to be protected, its beauty respected."