Venice Enforcing Rules for ‘Decorum and Cleanliness’

Strolling beer drinkers and the underclad received $14 fines Friday as police began enforcing a new municipal dress and eating code, city officials said.

Tourists walking around this historic lagoon city shirtless or in bathing suits were fined, said municipal spokesman Bruno Padoan. He said others were fined for consuming beer and sandwiches while wandering around St. Mark’s Square, which is lined with outdoor cafes.

The fines are part of a municipal campaign entitled “Decorum and Cleanliness.” But police generally warned tourists rather than fining them, Padoan said.

Under the new law, which went into effect Thursday, visitors are also forbidden to sleep outside, to swim in city canals, or play loud music from portable radios.

“We cannot permit the historic areas of Venice to be transformed into a camping ground,” Mayor Nereo Laroni said this week.

But the campaign met with resistance from the far left Proletarian Democracy Party, whose members staged a demonstration late Thursday night on the steps of Venice’s main railroad station.

The steps, nicknamed by Venetians the “hotel under the stars,” are a favorite camping spot for young tourists.

Despite the new laws, hundreds of travelers unrolled sleeping bags and spent Thursday night on the steps.