Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, is on a mission to clean up the Italian city’s treasured tourist sites. Promising “zero tolerance for those marring our city”, last year Raggi introduced a law banning bad behaviour, including eating, drinking or climbing on monuments, walking around partially unclothed and wading through fountains. “We don’t want people to take a bath, or ruin or dirty monuments anymore,” Raggi said at the time. Steep fines are in place for those who do not comply. This has been followed by a new ruling, which went into effect on Wednesday, January 1, that will remove the souvenir stands in front of some of Rome’s most significant sites. A total of 17 stalls selling an assortment of trinkets will be removed from sites ranging from the Trevi Fountain to the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona, in an effort to improve the “decorum and security” of these archaeological attractions. Some of these stalls will be allowed to sell their wares in adjacent streets. The mayor has also been successful in eradicating modern-day centurions – men who dress up as the ancient Roman warriors and then demand money, often aggressively, from tourists who pose for photos with them.
