Police give Rome visitors time to get used to new rules.

Rome police say they are issuing warnings to tourists who unwittingly find themselves flouting a new order prohibiting eating, drinking, sitting or swimming in the city's historic fountains, according to a report in daily Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

During the order's undefined "initial phase", the capital's urban police say they are "giving priority to deterring" tourists from breaking the new rules, which carry fines of between €40 and €240.

On the afternoon of 13 June, one day after the ban was introduced, police caught a 30-year-old Malaysian man bathing naked in Bernini's Quattro Fiumi fountain in Piazza Navona. The homeless man, who claimed he "felt hot", was fined €450 for indecent exposure.