Roma, nuovo regolamento di polizia urbana
July 17, 2019 12:39 PM Subscribe
New Urban Regulations for the City of Rome
"Exasperated by the sometimes louche behaviour of tourists, city authorities are cracking down on eating snacks in public places and even bouncing pushchairs and wheeled suitcases down the staircases of historic monuments such as the Spanish Steps."
When in Rome, comport yourself in accordance with Roman custom, but definitely don't:
"Exasperated by the sometimes louche behaviour of tourists, city authorities are cracking down on eating snacks in public places and even bouncing pushchairs and wheeled suitcases down the staircases of historic monuments such as the Spanish Steps."
When in Rome, comport yourself in accordance with Roman custom, but definitely don't:
- Dress up like a centurion
- Sing on the bus
- Go swimming in the fountains
- Hang your clothes out to dry between buildings
- Polizia urbana, entra in vigore il nuovo Regolamento (announcement)
- La Repubblica: Roma, il nuovo regolamento polizia urbana | Roma, daspo urbano e divieto di "attaccarsi" alle fontanelle
A general prohibition is established for persons who, for photographic purposes, dress as centurions with historical clothing or costumes in areas of historical, artistic, or cultural interest located in the Historic Center of Rome, at UNESCO sites, or at the Villa Borghese.
What if you dress up as a common legionnaire?
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:52 PM on July 17, 2019 [16 favorites]
What if you dress up as a common legionnaire?
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:52 PM on July 17, 2019 [16 favorites]
Something something Mussolini something trains
Yeah, I'm wondering now if there are other examples of frustration with Tourists Behaving Badly providing a smokescreen for more broadly toxic nationalistic/xenophobic policies.
posted by shenderson at 1:06 PM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'm wondering now if there are other examples of frustration with Tourists Behaving Badly providing a smokescreen for more broadly toxic nationalistic/xenophobic policies.
posted by shenderson at 1:06 PM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
These seem like sensible measures to me. My city doesn't get this many tourists but every spring during cherry blossom time one of the parks here gets flooded with locals who for the most part behave well but there are a certain number of people who do things like rip branches or climb trees despite the abundant signage telling them not to. It isn't a high rate of people but as there are so many people who come it still ends up being a lot of jackasses.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:08 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:08 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]
Something something Mussolini something trains
I asked a Roman about this back in the day, she being old enough to remember another time. Her take wasn't so much that the trains ran on time, but that men on trains stopped hitting on her as much as they customarily had.
Make of it what you will.
posted by BWA at 1:18 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]
I asked a Roman about this back in the day, she being old enough to remember another time. Her take wasn't so much that the trains ran on time, but that men on trains stopped hitting on her as much as they customarily had.
Make of it what you will.
posted by BWA at 1:18 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]
I asked a Roman about this back in the day, she being old enough to remember another time. Her take wasn't so much that the trains ran on time, but that men on trains stopped hitting on her as much as they customarily had.
I mean, you can look through accounts of the Italian train system in the 20s and 30s and it pretty quickly becomes clear that the whole thing is a combination of self-aggrandizement on the part of Mussolini and buy-in from wealthy British tourists with fascist sympathies. Authoritarianism isn't actually any more brutally efficient than other systems of government, it just gets sold that way by people who are mostly interested in the brutality.
posted by Copronymus at 1:35 PM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]
I mean, you can look through accounts of the Italian train system in the 20s and 30s and it pretty quickly becomes clear that the whole thing is a combination of self-aggrandizement on the part of Mussolini and buy-in from wealthy British tourists with fascist sympathies. Authoritarianism isn't actually any more brutally efficient than other systems of government, it just gets sold that way by people who are mostly interested in the brutality.
posted by Copronymus at 1:35 PM on July 17, 2019 [21 favorites]
[files the heretofore unfamiliar louche away for future use]
posted by bz at 1:39 PM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by bz at 1:39 PM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]
Tu vuo' fa' ll'americano
Mericano, mericano
Sient'a mme chi t' 'o ffa fa'?
posted by chavenet at 1:44 PM on July 17, 2019
Mericano, mericano
Sient'a mme chi t' 'o ffa fa'?
posted by chavenet at 1:44 PM on July 17, 2019
[files the heretofore unfamiliar louche away for future use]
louche mustachio to the manager's office. Manager's office, louche mustachio
posted by myotahapea at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]
louche mustachio to the manager's office. Manager's office, louche mustachio
posted by myotahapea at 2:17 PM on July 17, 2019 [10 favorites]
I can understand many of these, they sound a lot like what the Spanish were asking the British tourists not to do. (Post-Franco, for those keeping fascist scores at home.) The fountain one is weird and definitely needs really good signage in multiple languages.
That said, can anyone explain the ban on "Hang[ing] your clothes out to dry between buildings"? Tourists generally don't get to do that. That's targeting locals, unless I'm missing something.
posted by Hactar at 4:58 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
That said, can anyone explain the ban on "Hang[ing] your clothes out to dry between buildings"? Tourists generally don't get to do that. That's targeting locals, unless I'm missing something.
posted by Hactar at 4:58 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
I saw a TV exposé about the "wearing a Centurion costume for pictures" business. Apparently it's controlled by the Mafia, which I know will come as a shock to all of you.
posted by w0mbat at 5:17 PM on July 17, 2019
posted by w0mbat at 5:17 PM on July 17, 2019
Yes, they were also banning some formerly acceptable native behavior.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 5:19 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 5:19 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Was I the only one expecting the Go swimming in the fountains link to be to the famous scene from La Dolce Vita?
posted by kmkrebs at 6:58 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by kmkrebs at 6:58 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]
Apparently it's controlled by the Mafia, which I know will come as a shock to all of you.
The ridding of which organization is one reason why some southern Italians in particular have kinder memories of the twenties and thirties than might be expected. Of course the organization returned after the war with US help. Not much the post war government could do about it, though back in the seventies the government at Rome made a move to funnel development money down south. I recall a truck driver I hitched a ride with in Calabria bitterly complaining about how none of the money reached the intended audience.
posted by BWA at 5:33 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
The ridding of which organization is one reason why some southern Italians in particular have kinder memories of the twenties and thirties than might be expected. Of course the organization returned after the war with US help. Not much the post war government could do about it, though back in the seventies the government at Rome made a move to funnel development money down south. I recall a truck driver I hitched a ride with in Calabria bitterly complaining about how none of the money reached the intended audience.
posted by BWA at 5:33 AM on July 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
Since it has been mentioned, I spent a week in Italy (mostly Rome) in May and every train - from the intercity to the metro rail - ran on time. I didn't experience any singing on the buses, but there were a lot of people dressed as centurions trying to get tourists to pose with them. If it were up to me, I'd focus on the traffic and the graffiti, but I was only a tourist.
posted by YoungStencil at 1:39 PM on July 18, 2019
posted by YoungStencil at 1:39 PM on July 18, 2019
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posted by briank at 12:50 PM on July 17, 2019 [4 favorites]