Italian tourist town Pisa bans erotic souvenirs

AFP/Getty

Officials in the Italian tourist hotspot of Pisa have launched a crackdown on 'trashy' souvenirs in an attempt to clean up the town's image.

Fines of up to €500 are being slapped on stall holders who sell underwear with the tower resembling a penis, aprons that show Michaelangelo's David in all his glory, or shorts showing Bart Simpson holding the Leaning Tower of Pisa in a rude manner.

Souvenir stalls are a common sight around the 800-year-old Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is in the central region of Tuscany, and is visited by more than a million people a year.

The clean-up bid has been ordered by the town's mayor, Marco Filippeschi, who has asked mayors in other popular Tuscan towns - including Florence and San Gimignano - to do the same.

AFP/Getty

According to the Daily Mail, he said: 'This material is offensive to public decorum and should be banned from souvenir stalls - people with young families should not have to see these shocking items.

'Some of the so called novelty souvenir items that can be found on these stalls are verging on the pornographic and this is not the image of the city of Pisa we want to cultivate.

'Laws already exist which allow city councils to impose restrictions on selling items which are regarded as inappropriate but for too long a blind eye was turned to these trashy souvenirs.'

The Catholic Church, who has a Cathedral in the same square, agree with the move.

But stall holders, obviously, do not, and they insist tourists love them.

One told the Mail: 'It's just a bit of harmless fun.

'The tourists snap them up - there is a crisis on, how do the council expect us to make a living?'

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-127570%

Related articles

Banned! Barcelona to fine bikini-wearers on the city streets