A popular saying: no sooner is a law passed in Italy than someone finds a way to dodge it. But what if you are a Tourist? 
The fines that have been introduced have also prompted speculation that behind this most un-Italian bout of proscription lies an attempt by Silvio Berlusconi's government to compensate town councils for restricting their income.

Tourists risk falling prey as number of new local prohibitions passes 150
"Fatta la legge, trovato l'inganno," runs a popular saying: no sooner is a law passed in Italy than someone finds a way to dodge it.
But how to defend yourself from a law you do not even know exists?
That is the dilemma that has increasingly faced the population as mayors the length and breadth of Italy have imposed new and controversial restrictions, many taking advantage of a 2008 law that freed them to enact ordinances regarding "all that which could affect public order and security".
By the latest count, cited earlier this month by the daily La Stampa, the number of new local prohibitions has passed the 150 mark.
Kissing in cars is banned in Eboli, south of Naples, while in Lucca in Tuscany it has become illegal to open a kebab shop.
In Rome, the police will not turn a hair if you shoot the lights or accelerate towards a pedestrian on a zebra crossing.
But if you eat in the street, they can fine you.
Many of the restrictions have some kind of logic. At Termoli on the Adriatic coast, putting plant-holders on municipal property is illegal because restaurants do so to stake out a bit of the pavement and then fill it with tables and chairs.
It may be environmentally laudable that the council at Eraclea has banned the removal of sand and shells from the beach.
But harder to see what it has against holidaymakers who build sandcastles or play ball on the beach.
Foreign tourists risk falling prey to many of the new bans. They are unlikely to know, for example, that it is forbidden to dry a towel by hanging it out of a window in Lerici on the Riviera; that it is illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice, that women's wedges are banned in precipitous Positano and on the island of Capri, or that on some beaches they risk a fine of up to €10,000 for accepting a massage.
The fines that have been introduced have also prompted speculation that behind this most un-Italian bout of proscription lies an attempt by Silvio Berlusconi's government to compensate town councils for restricting their income.
The law that gave mayors their new, wider powers also curbed the scope of an unpopular, but lucrative, municipal housing tax.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/
25/local-prohibitions-increase-italy-law
 

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