Tourists risk £400 fine for picnics and drinking booze in Portofino crackdown
A sun-drenched holiday hotspot could fine rulebreaking Brits more than £400 after it introduced sweeping bans restricting a slew of typical summer activities.
Italian officials in Portofino, a stunning coastal town on the country's Riviera in Liguria typically swimming with thousands of tourists at a time, have introduced bans after growing weary of the massive activity. From today, new ordinance will prevent the up to 100,000 people who travel there a year from walking barefoot, enjoying picnics, and drinking booze on the community's streets.
The ordnance, which has been introduced to protect the "peace and quiet of residents and tourists", also introduces a series of other bans.
Signed by Mayor Matteo Viacava, it prevents people from walking through the town barefoot, topless, or while wearing nothing more than swimwear.
Per the rules, alcohol can only be consumed in restaurants, bars and designated areas, with begging and lying on the streets, walls, sidewalks and in local parks also banned. The new rules come into effect immediately, and will last throughout the summer season, when thousands of Brits will be mingling with the roughly 400 locals during a picturesque summer break.
Those who break the rules will risk a potential hefty fine, with penalties ranging from as low as £22 to up to £433 as Italian officials try to discourage unruly tourists.
Portofino has jostled with problem visitors for years, with the increasingly popular town having hit headlines years ago for similar restrictive measures. In 2023, officials banned tourists from visiting several local vantage points, officially citing concerns over local pedestrian footfall.
The earlier crackdown led to the creation of "no-waiting zones" in which tourists were prevented from pausing at locations - usually the most popular ones - deemed especially crowded or prone to bottlenecking.
Much like the latest raft of bans, rule flouters were threatened with hefty - although less pricey - fines. Anyone caught on the wrong side of the ordnance was ordered to pay up €275 (£242), with town administrators stressing at the time that, again like the latest rules, they were meant to protect the local quality of life.
Mayor Viacava told news outlet Leggo the rules were placed after select areas of the Portofino borough became so crowded that police were called in to "control pedestrians".
He said: "The ordinance prohibits gatherings in certain areas of the borough where getting around is so difficult that police must be called in to control pedestrians. This is a common sense safety measure." He added in a statement to Il Secolo XIX.: "Our goal is not to drive tourists away or discourage them from visiting.
"Everyone must do their part to contribute to the beauty of Portofino by behaving properly."
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