- Photo-souvenir gladiators touting for business in Rome have been banned
- The city’s new mayor Virginia Raggi passed the edict this week
- Tourists have complained about being charged up to €50 by the touts
Caroline Mcguire for MailOnline
Gladiator impersonators who have been touting for business around Rome’s top tourist attractions have been banished by the city’s new mayor.
Virginia Raggi has passed a ban on the men who pose in faux-ancient Roman armour for tourist photo souvenirs following reports that they have been fleecing foreigners for cash.
Holidaymakers have complained about being charged anywhere up to €50 by the touts, who can make €2,000 a week from the job.
Photo souvenir gladiators who work at Rome’s top tourist attractions have been banned by the city’s new mayor
There have also been reports of the men groping female tourists and one gladiator was even seen stealing €100 from a Romanian journalist’s wallet after they posed for a picture together.
They had already been banned by the interim mayor Francesco Paolo Tronca, in November, but the original edict ran out in June and scores of the gladiators reappeared outside the city’s attractions within days.
Now that the gladiators have been banned, they can face a fine of up to €400 if they are caught touting for business by the authorities.
Raggi said on Facebook after the edict was passed this week: ‘Rome is finally off and running! From tomorrow, a new ordinance will impose sanctions of up to €400 against the photo gladiators.’
Now that the gladiators have been banned, they can face a fine of up to €400 if they are caught touting for business by the authorities near places like the Colosseum
But some of the gladiators have complained that they are being unfairly victimised and have claimed they will be forced to beg on the streets if they are stopped from working in the photo souvenir business.
One man told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: ‘We’re just part of the attraction and add to the atmosphere.
‘We also help with security around here. Near the Colosseum we stopped a robbery the other day and once helped take down a man who was wielding a knife.’
The new edict also targets unlicensed rickshaw drivers who look for business at tourist attractions
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