by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:17 PM ET, Mon June 10, 2019
Rome has had enough of rowdy, misbehaving tourists.
The mayor of the historic city announced Friday that there will be a new, permanent, get-tough stance when it comes to dealing with tourists as well as the Romans who exploit them, according to USA Today.
The move was prompted by tourists' continual and growing penchant for jumping in public fountains, vandalizing monuments and treating historic and ancient landmarks like their own living room.
Mayor Virginia Raggi has presented a law that bans bad behavior such as eating or drinking or climbing on monuments, as well as walking around half undressed and taking a dip in fountains, USA Today reports.
Many of these new rules had already existed in temporary form but were not typically enforced.
Rome's city council not only voted unanimously Thursday to make the restrictions and measures permanent it also added harsher new punishment. Those found to be breaking the rules face being banned from the city's historic center for 48 hours.
"The Rome city center is an area protected by UNESCO, so clearly our center is our business ticket," Raggi told the Associated Press, promising "zero tolerance for those marring our city."
Rome is hardly alone in its effort to address such overtourism and bad behavior.
Florence for instance, passed a measure last year that involves fining people as much as $575 for eating on sidewalks or in doorways at meal times near the iconic Uffizi galleries.
Yet another Italian city, Venice, has prohibited similar behavior in the past in St. Mark's Square. Paris and Amsterdam have also had their share of challenges.
As for Rome, Raggi said she has even started writing to foreign ambassadors whose citizens were behaving poorly in the city.
"We don't want people to take a bath, or ruin or dirty monuments anymore," Raggi said, though AP didn't report which ambassadors were contacted.
But to be fair, it is not only tourists targeted by the new measure. Some locals have begun dressing up as centurions and demanding money from tourists who pose for selfies with them.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
