A popular Italian seaside town will fine tourists up to €500 ($743) for walking around in a bathing suit.
The mayor of Sorrento, Massimo Coppola, signed an order banning both tourists and locals from wandering around town either shirtless or in a bathing suit.
According to a release on the city’s website, the measure is designed to stem “malpractice and behaviours that are perceived by the majority of people as contrary to decorum and decency”.
Coppola said the persistence of “such a situation”, and by ‘situation’ we assume he’s referring to scantily clad tourists million about the city, was causing “discomfort and unease” among locals and could tarnish Sorrento’s image.
“The protection and improvement of the livability of public spaces represent a strategic and priority objective of the municipal administration, and the achievement of this aim cannot be separated from an action of prevention and contrast of the most widespread phenomena of indecent behaviour, the cause of a deterioration in the quality of life of citizens,” he said.
The ban will be enforced by local police who will patrol Sorrento’s streets, according to the Times, and those who don’t cover up will be hit with fines between €25 and €500 ($37- $743).
The ban follows a scathing article by local journalist Max Tamanti who said Italy’s resort towns now resemble “Dante’s Inferno” due to the “macabre procession’ of barely-clothed tourists, according to the Daily Mail.
Once frequented by the likes of Lord Byron, Goethe and Charles Dickens, Sorrento is a popular resort town on Italy’s southwestern coast, with sweeping views of the Bay of Naples, picturesque sea cliffs and the prestige of being the birthplace of limoncello.
