US Tourist Caught Eating on Fountain Steps Is Fined

He was found with beer, ice cream at 1am in Rome
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 6, 2022 3:43 PM CDT
Rome Fines US Tourist for Eating on Fountain Steps
The Fontana dei Catecumeni was built in 1589.   (Lalupa/Wikimedia Commons)

An American tourist was slapped with a $450 fine after police caught him sitting on the steps of a fountain early Saturday drinking a beer and eating an ice cream. The man had fallen afoul of one of the "urban decorum" rules the Italian capital introduced in 2017, the Guardian reports. Eating, drinking, and sitting are banned at the city's fountains. The Fontana dei Catecumeni was taped off by police Friday evening to stop anybody from sitting down—or diving in—but the tape was gone by the time the 55-year-old American sat down, reports La Repubblica.

After police told the man that sitting and eating at the fountain weren't permitted and asked him to move, he "continued as if no one had spoken to him" and was handed the fine, according to La Repubblica. Radio Roma reports that it was a busy weekend for Roman police officers enforcing local regulations: Hundreds of checks were carried out to make sure nightclubs weren't playing music too loudly, and an 18-year-old man was fined for diving into another fountain, the Fontana delle Naiadi. (Last year, two American men were fined for drinking beer in the Colosseum many hours after it closed to the public.)

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