The 55-year-old had chosen the edge of the Fontana dei Catecumeni to relax for a snack around 1 a.m. Saturday local time, local police told CNN. Officers intervened as the man “intended to drink and eat at part of the fountain” in violation of rules designed to protect the memorial fountains, police said. The fountain was built in 1588-89 by the architect and sculptor Giacomo della Porta and renovated in 1997. It is protected by rules first introduced in the 1970s to protect historic fountains, statues and other monuments. Updated rules focused on maintaining the city’s “environmental decency” have been in place since 2019. Local police said in a statement they carried out more than 300 checks last weekend, with street patrols enforcing rules, including limits on the volume of music played in bars. The laws also include a ban on drinking on the street, organizing pub crawls and taking a dip in the city’s fountains. Police officers can issue fines and even ban people from a certain area for up to 48 hours. Repeat offenders may be banned for up to 60 days. When the decorum rules were introduced, the city council said they were there “to deal with many aspects of city life, with particular attention to respecting the artistic and cultural heritage of the capital”. They were also meant to address the symptoms of hypertourism, which has become a buzzword in the Eternal City as it struggles to cope with the sheer number of visitors. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Rome received around 10 million visitors each year. There have been several recent incidents involving violations of the updated laws. In May, border police arrested a 37-year-old Saudi man at Milan International Airport after a rented Maserati was driven up Rome’s famous Spanish Steps and abandoned. A month later, two American tourists were fined and briefly banned from central Rome after damaging the stairs with electric scooters.
