Rome - Spanish Steps

Most sightseers would be gone during the night. If they want to put a fence up to keep people out at night, it would seem that it would be mostly to keep locals out, wouldn't it? Perhaps the barbarians are their own citizens.

Typical Daily Mail reporting - reaching for a grain of salt here.

yeah I know kinda of a rag paper, but it seems factual

my Google search shows it was closed for cleaning and will have grand re-opening in about a month.
Bulgari paid for the cleaning -
Spanish Step in Rome

I doubt that many locals typically picnic on the monuments, and many tourists are out carousing late into the night.

there use to be a 24hr shot of it at https://www.skylinewebcams.com/ ...It was pretty interesting to see what went on at 2AM a couple of times I watched it here in the USA.. A few commercials being shot, other people just hanging out ...did not see anyone being destructive ..

I think it is a terrific idea to close them down and treat them as a monument. The whole area is a nightmare day-and-night and we avoid it since you can neither walk up nor down easily due to the prone bodies everywhere. Surely some locals offend, but mostly it is careless tourists, mostly young, and since Rome is terrible about providing containers for trash where they are needed most, trash piles up around what few containers there are. The fountain was already damaged after it was restored a couple of years ago since the piazza is party-central. Close it off and let people look but not hang out.

My DH and I went last year in the morning, and it really wasn't that crowded. We enjoyed walking up them and taking pictures at the top. I guess I hate to see something ruined, though.

Just checked the webcam and the stairs are fenced but the fountain is not.

Closing off a very popular and well-liked public area by means of a fence shows a total lack of imagination. It's getting to be depressing to see barricades everywhere (I see them all over where I live, particularly in DC) because people can't seem to deal with problems caused by a few, so the fence becomes the most popular antidote. If trash is a problem, then hire people to sweep and collect trash and put out enough trash cans to encourage good behavior. If security is a problem, then hire some security guards or have police patrol the area. There are many peaceful people who enjoy sitting there (locals and non-locals) for every jerk who throws his/her trash on the ground. Putting up a fence is such a lazy, sad response. If a fence gets put up in one place, you'll see more and more get put up elsewhere because it's the path of least resistance. And once you put up a barrier, it doesn't seem to come down in the future (political inertia is strong) - so you're basically losing access for good.

These are stairs - not an archeological site or a museum. I have a strong bias toward keeping public spaces open to the public and not erecting ugly visual barriers that make it difficult to even take a photograph. This tabloid makes it seem like the refurbishing and cleaning of the stairs wasn't somehow inevitable at some point...if it were not for these "barbarians". The steps are old and need to be maintained on a certain schedule no matter what, just as the Trevi fountain needed a good power wash. The Bulgari suggestion to keep them pristine sounds like ironing your work slacks and then saying you can't wear them again because you'll screw up the nicely pressed creases.

Have any of you been on that thing in the rain (or when they're wet)? Oof. We attempted the climb to Trinità dei Monti years ago on a drizzling afternoon, and gave it up: it was like sliding around on glare ice. We saw several tourists take some really nasty falls, and darn near everyone was having some trouble staying upright. We did make it to the church via the back way some years later.

Garbage bins: I don't recall this trend in Rome but London had removed all the bins around their most important/most visited monuments as far back as 2002 as an anti-terrorist precaution. I remember trying to dispose of a bit of waste at the counter in a shop at Windsor Castle, and the attendant said sorry, they weren't allowed to accept/dispose of anything from visitors. Wonder if the same may be in store for other cities? I've watched the street-beat authorities methodically peer into bins as they patrol the downtown area in my own city.

It's like Disneyland washing the cement at night. Thousands of people, millions of gelato droplets and sweaty butt prints means the place is pretty gross at the end of the tourist season. If I were the Roman authorities I wouldn't ban picnicking I would just let it be known that the steps would be closed at the begging and end of the season maybe a few nights for a deep clean.

Spanish Steps reopen 21 Sep 16.

http://www.italoamericano.org/story/2016-9-16/spanish-steps-reopening

The webcam shows some pretty fancy lights and some sort of stands set up, looks almost like a rock concert with a big yellow cloth cover up the middle of the steps...might need to watch for a few hours to see what happens. Exciting.

I agree the steps should remain closed so as to protect them as a cultural monuments for future generations. It’s insane how people be it tourists or locals ruin such beautiful heritage! We were in Rome in May 2016 with my 2 sisters and we loved the Eternal city. We also went tothe Spanish steps and they were so packed with people.

I agree the steps should remain closed so as to protect them as a cultural monuments for future generations

What about the current generation which seems to be enjoying them a heck of a lot? This is not a primeval forest, it's stairs. Stairs that need to be deep cleaned and reconstructed once in a while when they chip. They were built in the 1720s and have lasted this long, so why deprive the public of a beloved meeting place? I'm happy to see them inaugurated again tomorrow eve.

The Spanish Steps were featured live on the CBS This Morning show.

Now open. Also referenced how private funding is making the restoration of Italian landmarks possible.

Also this from Conde Nast

http://www.cntraveler.com/story/romes-spanish-steps-are-now-open-again

During my travels to Europe, I have visited many churches and historic sites that were hundreds of years old. People were still allowed to walk on the floors, touch the columns, etc. Would you suggest that these sites also be "closed to protect them for future generations"? Restorations need to happen at times, but if you lock everything away to protect it, soon there will be nothing to see or experience.

The national news said the Spanish Steps were full of wine and coffee stains and wads of chewing gum stuck down pretty hard. I don't mind weaving around people sitting on the Steps, they use it like a Piazza, but I don't like the chewing gum at all!

Closing off the steps sounds pretty ridiculous, I do understand the frustration that locals and some authorities have expressed, including Mr Bulgari who ponied up 1.5m euro of his own money. Living in an area that is very popular with tourists is a double-edged sword. You're proud to have a world famous destination however, like many of the US National Parks, or, Lombard Street in San Francisco, you get the entire world showing up and it gets loved to death along with a healthy dose of clowns & idiots. So do you fence it off and say nobody can enjoy it? Take pictures from afar but, not up close?

If garbage is the problem, put more garbage cans out there along with more public maintenance people assigned to the area.
If it's littering, graffiti, boorish or, unruly behavior assign more police to the area.

Maybe work on a schedule, every other week the steps are closed to the public or, the steps are open on certain days of the week....