Airlines are raising prices of on-board snacks. Passengers already can’t bring their own liquids from home and tighter enforcement of carry-on rules may make bringing food on the plane more difficult. (So far, airlines don’t generally count a bag of food you buy at the airport as a carryon, but as bins fill up because of new checked baggage charges, that may change.)
Now the city of Rome is beginning to restrict what you eat on the ground. A new ordinance bars anyone from eating or drinking in Rome’s historical center with fines up to $80. The ordinance specifies “all areas of historic, cultural or artistic value, and in particular in the historic centre”, Police are starting food patrols in the area around the Spanish Steps.
Does this mean we can’t have a gelato walking up the Spanish Steps? While it may be fine to throw coins into the Trevi Fountain, can tourists munch on a slice of pizza margherita. At this point, it really depends on what the police decide to enforce. Luckily, the Italian police seem to be adapt at using common sense. I expect that only the most egregious offenders will be tagged.
Last year Venice banned picnics on St. Mark’s Square, but the $10 coffees are still available. Posters splayed on historic villa walls in the historic town also ban bare torsos. After all there should some sort of regulated decorum in the presence of such opulent history.
Some US cities restrict eating and drinking on public transit, notably the Washington DC Metro, the New York area PATH trains, and the San Francisco area BART. So far, however, while outdoors, tourists and locals are generally free to snack at will.
But with the current budget crisis in this country, who knows? If the experimental Rome ordinance saves the city clean up costs and the fines add up significantly, the US rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may soon not include walking around with an ice cream cone or a cup of coffee.
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One of the underreported things about this story is that Italians themselves would never picnic in the piazze. It’s only tourists that would think to do plop down with a panino, so in a way this is actually making Rome more Roman.
I think there is some serious misunderstand here – you are not forbidden to eat or drink while you WALK around the Spanish Steps – you are forbidden from SITTING AND EATING. This is due to a lot of serious misbehaviour, which has been going on since a few years in Rome and many other tourist towns in Italy. It happens even too often that during the week-ends, there are hours-lastings pic-nics on the steps of the Duomo in Milan, or of the one in Florence. Unfortunately, this often led not just to rubbish being left everywhere, instead of being thrown in the bins, but also to drunkness, broken glass bottles, etc. This is the logic behind the new law.
If you want to eat cheaply, Italian towns offer some alternatives – maybe not EXACTLY in the center of Rome, where, imho, the best value for money is still a salad in McDonalds, for all that’s worth. And Venice, as far as I see it, is just a rip-off everywhere. In Venice, my advice would be (1) first thing in the morning, get in a food shop and have bread, ham, cheese, whatever you want, and carry them with you or (2) leave the beaten track of tourism and head where the locals go – follow some employees from a local bank or from a shop, for example, see where they go in their lunchtime and follow them. Chance is, you’ll find an authentic osteria and have a typical meal for far less than a panino in the center. It takes maybe a little bit more of time, but it may be worth it.