Rome mayor Virginia Raggi thanks predecessor Ignazio Marino.

The Rome city administration now has the authority to move mobile snack bars and souvenir stalls away from cultural and archaeological sites thanks to a ruling by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation on 25 March.

The court rejected an appeal by Alfredo Tredicine - whose family owns the majority of Rome's mobile snack bars - who took the case to the highest level in 2016 after Lazio's regional administrative tribunal (TAR) supported the city's move to clamp down on mobile bars and souvenir stands around the capital.

The crackdown was begun in 2014 by former Rome mayor Ignazio Marino who reduced the number of stalls at the Christmas market in Piazza Navona from 115 to 72, a move which generated fierce opposition from the Tredicine family.

Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi welcomed the supreme court's decision, saying the move was a step forward for the "decorum and legality in our city", and thanking her predecessor Marino for kickstarting the process.

Photo La Repubblica