No more Sitting on the Spanish Steps? Rome Cracksdown on Tourist Crowds

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No more sitting on the Spanish Steps? Rome cracks down on tourist crowds

By The Local

“Get up everyone, it’s the rules: you can’t sit here,” a journalist for Adnkronos reported hearing police telling the crowds on the iconic stairway that leads from the church of Trinità dei Monti to Piazza di Spagna in the heart of Rome’s historic centre.

At mid morning the 135 steps, usually filled round the clock with people taking pictures or simply a rest, were practically deserted, the reporter said. He counted eight police officers moving people along.

The patrols are part of Rome’s latest crackdown on bad behaviour in the city centre, timed to coincide with the peak tourist season.

Under the new rules, in force since the beginning of June, police can impose stiffer fines for everything from bathing in fountains to dragging wheelie suitcases down historic steps, going shirtless to putting your mouth too close to public water fountains.

Ticket touts, unauthorized food and drink vendors, leaders of pub crawls and people who dress up as Roman centurions also risk a penalty.

While the rules on sitting aren’t entirely clear, the ordinance includes special protections for UNESCO sites such as the Spanish Steps, where visitors are banned from leaving any rubbish, graffiti or other damage – on pain of having to clean it up themselves.

There’s also an “anti-bivouac” clause that can potentially include anything from bedding down at historic sites to having a picnic – or, apparently, sitting down.

While police have long handed out fines for clambering into fountains or boozing at famous landmarks, the latest rules set even stiffer penalties: at least €400 for damaging any part of Rome’s heritage, and up to €450 for bathing in a fountain. Other bad behaviour can earn a fine anywhere between €100-400, and potentially a Daspo (or anti-social behaviour order) temporarily banning the offender from the city centre.

But are police being overzealous by stopping people from sitting down? “So long as some tourists – not all – continue to behave excessively, like those who damage the Colosseum by carving their names into it or bathe in our historic fountains, applying the rules rigorously, like in this case, is understandable,” local councillor Anna Vincenzoni told Adnkronos.

“The steps are a work of art, and you don’t sit on works of art,” agreed the head of a local residents’ association, Gianni Battistoni, who said it was too difficult to stop people eating and drinking on the staircase any other way.

“People come, pass through and leave. We can finally say that the steps have been given back to the city,” he said.

One prominent art critic and commentator, however, called the measure “excessive, practically fascist”. “Since time immemorial passing travellers have sat on the steps and admired the landscape,” said Vittorio Sgarbi.

Noto celebrates St. Conrad Festival on Sunday

by Alberto Lunetta

Noto, an enchanting Baroque city registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site, will celebrate it’s patron saint San Corrado (Saint Conrad) with a vivid religious festival on Sunday, Aug. 23. This is one of four traditional feste (festivals) honoring San Corrado which occur in this beautiful città throughout the year.

Noto has venerated Saint Conrad since the 16th century. In 1515, Pope Leo X permitted the town of Noto to annually celebrate a San Corrado festival on the anniversary of his death; Pope Urban VIII proclaimed him a saint 115 years later,

The Noto community continues to display devotion and gratitude to San Corrado because of the intercessions they attribute to him over the centuries.

According to one traditional story, in 1855 Noto residents prayed to San Corrado and town was spared against a deadly cholera epidemic

In another story, at the height of World War II in 1943, the city of Noto was spared from bombings allegedly due to the grace of San Corrado. The mayor at the time promised to offer a candle in gratitude to thank him.

Life of San Corrado

According to legend, Corrado Confalonieri was born in Piacenza in 1290. As a wealthy aristocrat, Corrado loved hunting. One day, while hunting in 1313, Corrado ordered his attendants to set fire to nearby bushes to flush out game. A prevailing wind caught the flames which rapidly spread and devastated nearby fields, forests, towns and villages. Corrado fled panicking.

An innocent peasant was accused of the fire’s damage. As retribution, the peasant was tortured to confess to a crime he did not commit and eventually sentenced to death. Corrado was stricken with remorse as the poor man was ready to be executed, and confessed his guilt to save the poor man’s life. His noble origins spared Corrado of the death penalty, but he had to sell all of his possessions to pay off the damaged property.

Thus, Corrado became poor and retired as a Franciscan monk to a lonely hermitage near Piacenza and his wife entered the Order of Poor Clares. Later, he moved to Sicily where he settled in the Noto Valley. He led a penitential life for thirty years using a local cave for meditation. According to tradition, Corrado worked several miracles during his long hermitage. A legend states that the most famous miracle occurred when the Siracusa Bishop visited Corrado in his humble home. When the Bishop asked Corrado if he had anything to offer to his guests, the hermit replied he would check his lowly stores. Soon after, he returned with fresh bread out of the oven convincing the bishop that Corrado was a saint.

Festival Schedule

The festival starts with a Holy Mass celebrated by the Noto Bishop at 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral on Sunday, Aug. 25. The City Band will perform during the morning. Later in the afternoon, the Arca, a silver urn containing the saint remains, is carried shoulder high along the streets of Noto historic center.

Giovanni Manuella, a Sicilian architect, designed the Arca in 1525. Throughout the centuries, several generations of Sicilian goldsmiths and silversmiths added fine decorations to the original model. The urn was eventually completed in 1848. The Arca is over six feet tall and 24 inches wide and weighs 880 pounds. It contains the saint’s body and normally kept inside the Noto cathedral. After the 1990 earthquake, the Arca was moved to the nearby Church of San Carlo al Corso since the cathedral was damaged by the tremors.

The procession begins at 7 p.m. from the Catedral and proceeds throughout the historic heart of the city. A continuous stream of more than 4,000 people follows the procession. Members from the local Confraternite (Confraternities) bring the traditional Cili and banners in procession and dress in traditional costumes. Cili are decorated iron bowls supported by a tall wooden stick, which contains a candle. They have been symbolizing the devotion shown to the saint after the fulfillment of a vow or pledge since the 1500s. Some fervent devotees still perform the traditional Viaggiu Scausu or “Barefoot Itinerary,” in which devotees follow the procession barefoot. The practice is believed to be a display of devotion. Some residents of the surrounding cities walk upwards of 15 miles to reach Noto and take part in the procession.

For more information, contact the Noto Tourist Office at 0931-896264.