Rome updates 73-year-old legislation available to city police.

Rome city council has updated existing legislation governing decorum in the capital, updating a raft of regulations dating back to 1946.

The new rules, available to the Polizia Urbana di Roma Capitale or municipal police, seek to curtail behaviour considered inappropriate in the city.

Chief among the measures is the permanent ban on costumed centurions operating at the Colosseum and the historic centre, replacing previous legislation which relied on the regular renewal of temporary bans.

Other major changes include "severe" penalties for those who jump into the city's historic fountains, and the introdution of a so-called daspo or temporary ban on individuals from returning to the area in which they caused an offence.

The daspo ranges from 48 hours to 60 days (for repeat offences) and there are 14 districts in which it can be applied, including the historic centre, Ostia, EUR, S. Lorenzo and Prati.

The new measures range from prohibiting illegal street trading, particularly around historic monuments, to providing stiffer rules regulating noise pollution.

The regulations include a ban on "nuisance drunks" on public transport as well as prohibiting singing or busking on the city's buses, metro and trams.

One regulation, which could be of particular importance for tourists to note, is a ban on "messy" eating and drinking outdoors around Rome's historic monuments - as well as taking pushchairs (strollers), wheeled cases or prams up and down staircases of historic importance, such as the Spanish Steps.

The rules outlaw pub crawls and touts promoting "skip-the-line" offers at historic sites, affixing stickers to city property, dropping cigarette butts on the ground, and attaching "love locks" to historic monuments.

There is also a ban on walking around "bare-chested", attaching your lips to nasoni water-fountains, placing erotic material in shopfronts, the widespread practice of dog owners who fail to pick up after their dogs, even the long-held Roman custom of hanging laundry out to dry between adjacent buildings.