When visiting Rome you cannot miss the costumed gladiators and centurions around the Colosseum area offering to pose with you in front of a camera and then asking for €10,00, €20,00 or even €30,00 euros. Well, these legions of costumed gladiators and centurions are about to be banned from the Colosseum area, as the city announced they have until the 6th of April to leave. But the legionaries say they’ll stay put and promise to fight against the bann.
Officials say asking money from tourists after posing for pictures is illegal and has to stop. They also ordered licensed vendors to distance themselves from the monument during the Easter season and mayor, Gianni Alemanno, banned camping in piazzas in the city centre. He issued an order entitled "Urgent measures for the preservation, promotion and public use of artistic and monumental heritage in the city of Rome" which bans camping and/or lying in squares of artistic and cultural importance in the historical centre of the Eternal city even to just have food and drinks.
These measures, officials claim, are required to prevent vendors, costumed gladiators and certain types of tourists from turning the image of Rome from that of an open museum to that of a theme park.
Centurions and gladiators will be still allowed to work elsewhere in Rome such as along the road leading up to the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain or in the Renaissance Piazza Navona, but no location compares to the Colosseum where dozens of tour buses line the street to give passengers an hour to visit the Roman landmark.
If this could be the beginning of a new spectacle at the Colosseum entitled “Centurions vs Policemen” we cannot say, but considering the failure of previous attempts to enforce the city's policy against fake warriors, it is certainly a space to watch.
