At about noon I start gazing around for suspects. Soon it will be lunchtime. The Piazza di Spagna is crowded, the stairs of Trinita dei Monti are so full it's hard to walk, and Bernini's Fontana della Barcaccia is being photographed from every angle. But amid this chaos my role is simple: to make sure people don't start eating their sandwiches or, worse, set up full picnics right on top of the monuments here in Rome.
As soon as anyone does - and it happens every day without exception - I run to stop them. It's my duty as a municipal police officer to approach offenders and inform them that as of October a new law prohibits people from eating near any monument in Rome. Trespassers can be fined anything between EU25 and EU500, but since I am a nice guy I never demand more than EU50. More would be too much, as it's preferable that people pay on the spot.
Every time my colleagues and I catch someone we ask the same questions: “Remember when you went to the Vatican, how you couldn't dress as you pleased? Weren't the rules long trousers, no bare shoulders and no snacks? Why should it be different here?” At this point, there are really only two possible outcomes: the sympathetic reaction or the angry one.