City gives Rome businesses more outdoor space to help them get through 2020.

Rome's restaurants, bars and bookshops will be granted the use of up to 35 per cent extra public space outside their premises throughout 2020, announced the city's mayor Virginia Raggi.

The move, which takes effect from 25 May, is designed to assist small businesses in coping with the economic difficulties caused by the covid-19 pandemic as well as facilitating the extra space required by social distancing.

However the mayor assured that there would be no tables placed "a few metres from the Trevi Fountain or other monuments," or where extra tables would constitute a risk to public safety, reports Italian news agency ANSA.

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Raggi also announced that the city has suspended the collection of local taxes for the use of public space, in addition to creating the #RomaRiapre fund to help Rome's shops and small businesses get back on their feet.

The mayor said that her administration was doing "its utmost to alleviate the crisis caused by the coronavirus emergency" for bars, restaurants, shops and all small businesses which "constitute a fundamental part of the city's economy."

Photo credit: Kirk Fisher / Shutterstock.com