Drunken Tourists Threaten Historic Sites

"The place is quite literally soaked in booze and a growing number of Rome's residents are fed up with what they see."

The photo accompanying this story effectively illustrates the situation.

Locals "fault the city for issuing far too many liquor permits for new restaurants and bars and the police for failing to enforce various noise-control ordinances."

"As a city, Rome remains a very safe destination for visitors. The rowdiness of its night life is on par with, and often does not match, that of other major capitals. But the uniqueness of Rome's historic center and the fact that this activity is a relatively new phenomenon has prompted more and more concern."

"On its face, the issue would seem to be a case of too much of a good thing - tourism in Rome is booming and has been growing steadily for five years. In the month of May, two million people visited Rome and the city is predicting that more than 20 million tourists will have passed through in 2007. But there are other transformative forces at work as well - some social, some economic - that shine a light on the state of modern tourism."

"The issue started to heat up more than a decade ago, when the city decided to transform the historic center, which he called the 'best preserved' in the world, into an entertainment destination. That led many ancient palazzos to be gutted and turned into restaurants and bars. 'If it continues like this for 10 years we will no longer have a historic center,' said Giuseppe Strappa, an architect and professor who has written extensively on the changing face of the city's historic center."