Rome is at risk of turning into a theme park, newspaper claims.

French newspaper Le Monde has accused Rome of embracing mass tourism amid a "Disneylandisation" of the Eternal City whose residents are being squeezed out of the centre.

Titled Rome, the empire of tourism: the "Disneylandisation" of the Italian capital worries its residents, the article by Rome correspondent Allan Kaval takes the reader on a walk through the thronged streets of the historic centre to the Trevi Fountain where crowds form a line to photograph the Baroque landmark.

The new queueing system - free for now - was introduced late last year as part of crowd-control measures, ahead of plans to charge visitors a €2 entry fee.

"While this brings welcome order to the tourist chaos" - the article states - "the most bitter Romans see it as a harbinger of the definitive transformation of their city centre into an amusement park."

Kaval quotes a steward employed at the site who tells him anonymously: "Sometimes it feels a bit like we're tending a flock of sheep. They don't even see us. They don't see the fountain, only through their phone screens".

“See you at Disney” graffiti appears on the barriers around the Trevi Fountain as Rome limits access to the Baroque landmark and considers introducing an entry fee. pic.twitter.com/ZDEJuyRSe0— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) October 16, 2024

The walk from the Trevi Fountain to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona is difficult, as crowds shuffle between dozens of restaurant tables positioned in every available space - the article states - while door staff encourage tourists to try their carbonara or cacio e pepe.

Those who can't wait for a table opt instead for a slice of take-away pizza which they eat sitting in Piazza della Rotonda, in front of the Pantheon.

Kaval suggests a more suitable space to sit and enjoy street food would be the Spanish Steps, but here the traffic police are at hand to warn tourists that sitting is not allowed.

As tourists assault the Spanish Steps with sports cars and electric scooters, here’s a reminder that it is forbidden to even sit on #Rome's historic staircase. pic.twitter.com/oijgsJzsP5— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) June 9, 2022

The bumper crowds of tourists have been swollen by hordes of pilgrims coming to Rome for the Vatican's Jubilee Year, a holy event that occurs in the Italian capital every 25 years.

The article refers to the great transformation in Rome, much of it spurred by Jubilee Year, and praises the work carried out by city hall.

Describing it as a tourism "in Bermuda shorts that sees the beauties only through the screen of the phone",  Kaval writes: "Never has the mass of visitors weighed so much on its historic centre, a jewel of cobbled streets, hundreds of churches with their splendid treasures and ancient vestiges set in the urban fabric".

The lengthy reportage also addresses the exodus of local residents out of the city centre amid a rise in demand for short-term rentals.

This growing trend has seen landlords transform their properties into tourist accommodation, forcing residents to move elsewhere and leaving many of them priced out of the market.

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Filippo Celata, professor of economic geography at Rome's La Sapienza University, told Le Monde: "Tourist rentals take properties away from the market, increase prices and transform the urban fabric by emptying entire neighbourhoods of their residents; from 2013 to 2023 the old inhabitants of the city centre have fallen by 38.5 per cent and by 45 per cent in Trastevere".

Kaval also spoke to Rome tourism councillor Alessandro Onorato, who was to the forefront in bringing in the crowd control measures at the Trevi Fountain as well as launching a recent battle against key boxes used for short-lets.

"We still have ample room for growth, we do not want to dissuade visitors from coming, we want to attract" - Onorato said - "There is a lot of space and monuments in the suburbs that are practically unknown and must be enhanced, such as the Parco degli Acquedotti."

Denying claims that Rome is being "Disneylandised", Onorato stated: "We are not Venice".