Mayor Bans Pub Crawls in Rome

Tourists hoping to spice up their Rome sightseeing agenda this year with a little pub crawling may be disappointed to know that from now until December 31, 2010, Rome's Mayor Gianni Alemanno has placed a ban on all pub crawls in Rome establishments.

Pub crawls have been at the center of attention since last year when an Australian tourist was found dead in Rome's Tiber River wearing a Rome pub crawl t-shirt. Unlike the United States, the legal drinking age in Italy is 18. For this reason, many young American tourists overdo it by drinking too much, too quickly and end up making fools of themselves or even getting into trouble with the law (ever seen an American guy climb up onto an Ancient obelisk and urinate on it? I Have).

According to an article in La Repubblica today, the scope of this ban is to avoid large groups of drunken tourists in the center who defile the city and disrupt its residents. The ordinance refers to pub crawls as “tours whose aim is to get people drunk”, and has entrusted the municipal police with the responsibility of identifying those who continue to illegally sponsor them both locally and on the internet. Bars who are found to receive such groups will be forced to close for a period between 3 and 60 days, with repeat offenders possibly losing their license to operate. The penalties for the actual organizers of pub crawls have not been made public.

My advice? Plan your Rome sightseeing activities carefully and avoid the pub crawls!