New bus shelters for Romes historic centre will be green with a design reminiscent of classic 1930s and 1940s shelters, city authorities have decided. "Intelligent" panels informing passengers about bus arrivals, traffic lights, news stands and tourist information booths will be painted the same shade, described as "verde Roma". The new bus shelters in the centre will be installed by the end of 2007, although a prototype is already in place in Largo di Torre Argentina.

Elsewhere in the capital, 200 new shelters were erected in April and a further 155 are due to go up in June. Shelters outside the historic centre have a different design and have been funded by a private company in return for advertising space, but it was decided those within the centre should be of a more decorous style in keeping with their surroundings. City authorities plan to have installed 1,440 shelters in the city as a whole by 2008.