Strict Mayor to Levy Fines for Miniskirts, Cleavage and Cursing

A woman is shown near a beach in this file photo. A seaside city in Italy may ban miniskirts and other revealing clothing to improve what the mayor calls standards of public decency.

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Decency Laws Tend to Fade Away

Some residents see the measures as attempts to target the immigrant workers who have flooded the towns, bringing their different customs with them.

Mayor Bobbio is hardly the first Italian mayor to make use of extra powers handed down from the central government, especially in seaside towns, in an effort to fight crime and curtail anti-social behavior.

He is also not the first to garner attention and headlines in the national media for such efforts. Cynics see the regulations as nothing more publicity stunts because, they say, laws of this kind are ignored by tourists and soon forgotten.

In the past, for instance, Italian mayors have banned building sand castles and having picnics by the seashore, kissing in cars, lying on public benches (even sitting on them after 11 p.m.), feeding stray cats, wearing wooden clogs and mowing lawns on weekends.

But even if the council shoots down the latest proposals today, the mayor may have achieved what he was after anyway: having Castellammare di Stabia associated with the kind of decency and correct behavior for which it has not been previously known.