The head of Venice city council's 'urban decorum' office on Thursday appealed to people to refrain from scribbling on the lagoon city's historic buildings and monuments.
Presenting a project to clean away graffiti in St Mark's Square, Augusto Salvadori said the council could no longer put up with the costs required for such clean-up operations.
''I'm grateful to the individual citizens who help us out, but it is fundamental that a civic conscience grows and takes root among the residents and the guests in the city,'' he said.
''Venice must measure up to its history and everyone owes it love and respect,'' Salvadori added.
A two-woman team of restorers armed with brushes, steam cleaners and ecologically friendly solvents on Thursday began to remove graffiti from the 14 columns on the Procuratie Nuove flanking the south side of the square, which has been a top tourist attraction for over 100 years.
After cleaning the columns, Elisabetta Longega and Sara Chiostergi will apply a protective wax film that will not change the colour of the columns and cannot be felt by human touch but will make future graffiti removal faster and more cost-effective.
The women will then move on to the columns on the square's Napoleonic Wing which were cleaned last year but have already been written on again, Salvadori explained.
Clearing the graffiti in Venice is the latest in a raft of initiatives by the city council to ensure the city stays clean and maintains its charm despite the presence of 20 million visitors a year.
Volunteer patrols of 'guardian angels' wander the city to prevent ''indecorous behaviour'' among tourists, which the city has decided includes sitting on the pavement, eating sandwiches there or going bare-chested.
In another move to keep Venice looking smart, administrators have cracked down on the street artists that flock to the lagoon city hoping to earn a few euros from well-heeled tourists.
As of last month, feeding pigeons in the city has now been banned outright so as to reduce the quantity of droppings which soil the piazza and erode its buildings.
The city is working on laws to stop the sale of fast food in St Mark's Square to limit the amount of rubbish that accumulates there and which street cleaners can only remove once a day.
The council is also discussing plans to fine beggars up to 500 euros and confiscate their day's takings if they are caught asking for money in areas frequented by tourists.
