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Rome to move mobile traders from historic centre

New plan to rid tourist sites of snack bars and street hawkers by 10 July.

Rome mayor Ignazio Marino has launched yet another plan to move street traders from areas of archaeological and historic importance in the city centre by 10 July.

Similar plans have been announced before, both by Marino and his predecessor Gianni Alemanno, but never came to pass. Stressing his determination to succeed this time, Marino says he wants the Colosseum to appear as it did in the photographs of the visit of US president Barack Obama in spring 2014 – without a street trader in sight.

Under the new regulations, mobile snack bars, souvenir stalls and flower sellers operating in tourist areas of the centro storico will be required to relocate by the July deadline, or face having their goods and vehicles seized by police.

souvenir colosseo

The sandwich bars will be moved to various points along the river at Lungotevere and to Via della Piramide Cestia, which runs from the Aventino area to the city's pyramid, while the souvenir sellers will move to Via. S. Gregorio, which runs between the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus.

The plan will affect tourist sites such as the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus, the Roman Forum, Piazza Venezia, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, and the Tridente area, which incorporates Via del Corso, Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna.

The proposal is likely to face opposition, primarily from the powerful and politically-connected Tredicine family which owns the majority of the sandwich bars. However Marino has taken on the traders before and won, in his clampdown on the Christmas market in Piazza Navona last December.

 

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