Sunday,
May 27, 2007
The
ANNOTICO Report
Littering,
loitering visitors at St. Mark's Square spur leaders to set new rules.
Call them the
slob police.
Officials in
To combat what
they see as a scourge,
In St. Mark's
Square, it is now forbidden to sit or recline under the porticos and on the
steps along the Procuratie Nuove
and the Ala Napoleonica, the buildings that ring the
city's iconic St. Mark's Square. And don't even think of stopping alongside the
Doge's Palace to nibble on a panino, a gelato or
another snack.
"It is
forbidden to stop to eat or drink anywhere other than at tables set out by
public restaurants," the leaflet says. "It is forbidden to litter or
leave behind wastepaper, cans, bottles and any other type of solid or liquid
waste."
Even the sale of
takeout food, a staple for tourists, is being banned around St. Mark's Square.
The trash, pizza
crusts and pigeon excrement that coat the square are of particular concern to
city officials and others who maintain that the rubbish is ruining the site,
one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.
"I've been
saying for some time that drastic measures are required," Augusto Salvadori, a senior tourism official, told the Italian
daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The struggle over
rules reflects the dilemma for popular tourist magnets. Communities crave and
rely on tourist dollars, but at some point they feel overrun by the very
visitors they've courted.
Such is certainly
the case in
To impose order,
some city officials are even thinking of directing foot traffic through St.
Mark's.
"[The
tourists] walk like sheep," said Marisa Boffelli,
an official with the town hall. "I sometimes can't even move; I'm stuck
and am late getting to the office."
And so, for now,
the "decency patrols," as the local press calls them, will enforce
the new rules.
Violators who
litter, eat in undesignated areas or loiter under impermissible porticos may be
fined up to 500 euros, or about $675.
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