FIRST OFF . . .

An Italian lawmaker in Rome demanded a ban Thursday on concerts such as the one last weekend in Venice by British rock band Pink Floyd that smothered the city in rubbish and damaged its monuments. The demand was made as the Venice City Council, stung by calls for its resignation over Saturday’s concert, was studying a proposal to limit the number of tourists allowed to enter the lagoon city each day. Sen. Piergiorgio Gradari of the neo-fascist MSI party made a formal request to the Interior Ministry to ban events that could threaten public order or could damage any city’s artistic heritage. Senators from the Greens environmentalist party asked the Rome government to put a value on the damage done to Venice during the concert. Venice’s mayor and City Council have come under fire for allowing the free concert to be held without providing sufficient sleeping, eating or toilet facilities for the more than 150,000 fans who poured into the city. The fans, who included film director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow, crammed waterfronts and clambered onto monuments and roofs of churches to watch the concert, staged on a floating platform off St. Mark’s Square.