Tourists face €250 fines for sitting on Spanish Steps in Rome
The rules, which were announced in July, stipulate that unruly behaviour around historic or artistic monument sites, including soiling, defacing or damaging them, would land you a fine of between 250 and 400 Euros. Spanish Steps fines
The rules also prohibit jumping into fountains, messy eating and sitting or laying on the Spanish Steps, according to Italian newswire ANSA.
According to The Washington Post, police have begun blowing a whistle at tourists who try and sit on the UNESCO-protected 18th-century steps and asking them to leave the site.
Simone Amorico, CEO of Access Italy, a private tour operator, told the Post the rules are needed to reduce the risk of tourists being disrespectful in Rome.
“Walking in Rome is like walking in a museum. Things go back 2,000 years old. You can walk from one part of the city to the other and pass the most important monuments and venues there are in history,” Amorico said.
Amorico added that picnicking on the Spanish Steps is something only tourists do. “Italians don’t do that,” she said.
And the rich and famous are not excluded from Italy’s rules. The newlywed German model Heidi Klum and her husband are reportedly facing a €6,000 fine for swimming in Capri’s Blue Grotto. The couple, who married on the island on Saturday, allegedly dived into the turquoise waters of the cavern from a yacht shortly before sunset on Monday.
People can visit the grotto by boat, but swimming is strictly forbidden.
Ten ways to get in trouble in Italy
As Rome and other Italian cities continue their crackdown on “uncouth” behaviour, you might get in trouble if you do any of the following:
- “Messy eating” or “camping out” on piazzas or the steps of monuments.
- Singing, while drunk, on public transport.
- Wrapping your mouth around the nozzle of a drinking fountain.
- Walking around bare-chested.
- Dragging wheeled suitcases and buggies down historic staircases.
- Jumping into fountains.
- Dipping your toes into a canal in Venice.
- Feeding pigeons in Venice.
- Building sandcastles in Eraclea, a beach town near Venice.
- Wearing noisy shoes in Capri (wooden clogs have been banned since 1960).
