An American tourist has fallen foul of Rome’s recently introduced ‘urban decorum’ rules when he was caught eating an ice-cream by the Fontana dei Catecumeni.
The new rules, which are designed to protect historic landmarks, prohibits eating around Rome’s treasured landmarks.
Tourists are also forbidden from eating on Rome’s famous Spanish steps and should never sit down on the monument.
The tourist was shocked by the particularly harsh tourist fine, which left him almost £400 out of pocket.
According to local reports, the tourist ignored the police when they asked him to move away from the landmark.
A local paper reported the man as saying: “I didn’t know the rule, I didn’t know I couldn’t sit down.
“I didn’t understand what you were saying to me.”
Rome isn’t the only tourist destination in Italy to be cracking down on rowdy tourist behaviour. Venice’s mayor recently promised a free dinner to anyone who helped him identify two rule breaking tourists who were videoed surfing on one of the city’s canals causing widespread anger among residents.
A pair of American tourists were also recently chastised for skinny dipping in one of Venice’s canals. The canals might look attractive but the water is actually very dirty and sometimes even contains sewage.
Italy’s Amalfi coast has also begun to crack down on tourists and has introduced a brand new bikini ban for visitors. Tourists are banned from wandering around shirtless or in a bikini although they are still allowed to do so on beaches. The region has also introduced new number plate restrictions to control the number of tourists accessing the popular coastal road.
