As someone who also travels to Roma fairly often for work (not as often as I'd like, but that's just greedy of me ), I had this article pointed out to me, too. I have to say that I am not in favor of this part of the legislation (the part about not being in the Trevi is fine with me, and I'm a big fan of getting rid of the faux Roman gladiators ^). I accept that perhaps the Spanish Steps are so crowded that one cannot go up or down, but I have never seen this. Crowded? Sure. But that crowded? No. Perhaps this is because I am there at the wrong part of the day; I typically leave the center of the city (via the Spagna metro station, by the way) in the morning and return in the early evening. I typically see more people congregating around the Fontana della Barcaccia, at the base of the Steps.

But my understanding is that the issue has to do with garbage, which I find even more ridiculous. Maybe it's totally in keeping with who they are that this is the solution proffered by a municipal government that was voted in, in part, to solve longstanding issues with the city's sanitation services. Instead of keeping people off the Spanish Steps to keep it clean they could, y'know, perhaps hire sanitation workers to keep the Spanish Steps clean? Or would that be asking too much of Raggi? If the answer to that is 'yes' (as I fear it probably is), why don't they just outlaw eating on the Spanish Steps? Wouldn't that solve the problem? There are simpler ways to go about fixing this problem, and I really worry about the unintended consequences of this portion of the new law (again, getting rid of the "gladiators" is a-OK with me! ).


Full disclosure: I have never sat on the Spanish Steps.

I can confirm that as of this past Monday there were indeed employees of the police department (three, to be exact) working the Steps and blowing whistles at would-be sitters. (They wear fluorescent yellow vests indicating that they're working for the municipal police, but they don't wear police uniforms.) So, yeah, while there were still plenty of people milling about, there was no one sitting on the Spanish Steps. Aside from that, it didn't feel too different to me. There were the same number of them hanging out on the Steps this morning (as well as a sanitation worker sweeping the Spanish Steps).

Oh, the other asinine thing about this that I forgot to mention above is that the police, while chasing away would-be sitters from the Steps, had no problem whatsoever with people sitting on the perimeter of the Fontana della Barcaccia (the fountain that is in the shaping of a sinking ship) at the base of the Spanish Steps. It definitely makes me question whether or not there is any consistent logic being applied here. Roma!