Rome tourists face €500 snacking fine
 

Hi Everyone,

I saw this in the news - Rome tourists face €500 snacking fine

Is it REALLY going to promote business at cafes?! When traveling, I often take healthy snacks with me to avoid eating junk I should generally stay away from.

Of course, it's pretty hard to avoid historic/architecturally valuable areas in Rome!!

:confused:

There's a discussion taking place about this on SlowTravel, which links an article from the Daily Telegraph published yesterday: Don't eat that gelato on the Spanish Steps!

And in Italian from La Repubblica published Oct 1: Torna l'ordinanza anti-bivacco, Per un panino multa fino a 500 euro

And in Italian a post from the 06Blog.it: Centro di Roma: Ordinanza anti-bivacco e multe salate

Remember that it's still Italy.. Which means that there's always a little more flexibility on those matters than many other countries..

While they might give you a ticket for eating a full meal sitting on the edge of a famous fountain I would be quite surprised if they bother someone eating an apple or a sandwich on a bench anywhere in Rome...

as long as you don't litter around, nothing will going to happen.

Katie Parla and others are staging a flash mob protest tomorrow in Rome (October 6th at 1pm): Join Gastro Flash Mob Against Rome’s Sandwich Tyranny! With pizza and sandwiches provided by some of Rome's best: "Beppe e I Suoi Formaggi, Bottega Liberati, Gabriele Bonci, ‘Ino, 00100 Pizza, Primo al Pigneto, Laboratorio Agricolo Panella, Roscioli, Tricolore"

And here's another blog post on the ordinance by the restaurant Puntarella Rossa (in Italian): Bivacchi? Solo Alemanno po’ magna’

a reg like that would put a real dent in the sandwich truck biz here in dc.

For those not also reading the ST thread - I just posted the following there:

I came across Roma Capitale's tweet linking to their site and this article: Decoro, nuova ordinanza anti-bivacco And that article links to the actual 3 page pdf containing the ordinance.

And here's an article from NBC with the specifics of who's being fined and how: Snacking tourists fined after Rome declares 'War on the Sandwich'

And this Wanted in Rome piece from Oct 3rd has a little info on some of the protesters to this law: Rome bans camping and eating on streets in centre

Here's a picture just tweeted by Katie Parla from the Flash Mob on the Campidoglio:

a crowd surrounds a cop giving a ticket to a sandwich protester: http://instagram.com/p/QcH6a1n-Uf/

Here's the video from La Repubblica and the slildeshow after yesteday's flash mob at the Campidoglio.

And Katie Parla has a new blog entry about yesterday's protest, complete with a different video. (And it's interesting to note that everyone involved all looked Italian to me - they sure weren't speaking English. I add this because it seems a misrepresentation by the press linked above, the Daily Telegraph and NBC, titling this a law against "tourists"). Here's her post:
Flash Mob Against Roman Ordinance

There's also been a lively discussion about this over on Chowhound.

Well these civil protests seem to have had an impact. Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno says he's not anti-sandwich just anti-deterioration. Meaning he says we all have over reacted. I don't pretend to understand Roman politics, I've just tried to pay attention to this since I do enjoy my gelato while admiring Rome's jewels (but I'm a neat freak, and I assure you I've never littered), so I wanted to stay current with what may or may not result in being fined.

He posted on his blog a pretty funny video of him going up the Spanish Steps picking up litter, and talks about the flash mob on the Capitoline and how everyone's misunderstood him. Here it is:
http://duepuntozero.alemanno.it/2012...monumenti.html
Here's the google translation:
http://translate.google.com/translat...monumenti.html

And in English from the website Wanted in Rome:
Rome mayor clarifies “anti-panino” law

As far as I can see this rule is not being really enforced, people (tourists and locals) eating discretely their food are ignored by the law enforcement authorities.

Thanks for the report jamm! ^

Is not that rule is not enforced.
It is all about littering. That should be actually enforced.

Yes, littering is the real issue.
They explicitly say they don't care about our friend sk3 eating ice-cream while admiring the surroundings.
Local authorities are given order to react only when littering is involved, unfortunately some politic party (deliberately or not, I don't know) gave an interpretation of this new rule of the mayor of Rome as a ban to the sandwich on the streets, hence the whole fuss on the media came out.
I doubt anyone, who read the decree, would complain about a rule against littering :-)

The following is just an OT personal note -

I'm sincerely really touched by the way you referenced me jamm. Grazie! :)

Here I am, an Angeleno, going on and ON about Rome, and I've worried over what you and the other Rome based FTers might be thinking about me. (If the shoe was on the other foot, and I kept reading in the Los Angeles Forum posts from a Roman telling me about Los Angeles, I don't know if I'd be as kind as jamm). ;)