Italian mayor bans sand castles

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images Here are some things you can no longer do in certain parts of Italy: No building sand castles in Eraclea No wearing noisy wooden clogs in Capri No gatherings of three or more people in parks at night in Novara No mowing your lawn on the weekends in Forti dei Marmi As ...

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593149_080819_sandcastle5.jpg

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images

MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images

Here are some things you can no longer do in certain parts of Italy:

  • No building sand castles in Eraclea
  • No wearing noisy wooden clogs in Capri
  • No gatherings of three or more people in parks at night in Novara
  • No mowing your lawn on the weekends in Forti dei Marmi

As part of a countrywide effort to fight crime, Italian mayors have been given more law-and-order powers, but some mayors appear to have gone way overboard. One man in Vicenza was fined for lying down at the park to read a book, though after the man vented on national radio, the mayor said he would remove the ban.

Sounds like some Italian mayors need to lighten up and have some summertime fun.

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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