Italy bans sandcastles and bikinis

Italian mayors have issued a series of bizarre by-laws including a €500 (£400) fine for kissing in cars in Eboli and a €250 fine for building sandcastles on the beach at Eraclea, near Venice.

Encouraged by a national crackdown on crime and spurred by a decree giving extra powers to maintain order, mayors have banned a myriad of pet hates. Smoking on the beach at Oristano in Sardinia attracts a €360 fine, while anyone fleeing to the mountains of Alto Adige should resist picking mushrooms or pay €113.



Wearing noisy wooden clogs or wandering off the beach in a bikini in Capri is forbidden, as is feeding pigeons in Lucca, lighting fireworks in Positano, apart from on Saturdays, and mowing lawns in Forte di Marmi at weekends.

The government has also got in on the act, this month banning the increasing number of Chinese women who patrol Italy's beaches offering massages.