Graffiti gets a spray in Rome

Melbourne,Victoria,Australia

Ben English
12aug04

IT has been scrawled on buildings here since Nero was a boy and, in modern times, viewed as a post-modern artform.

But now, more than 2000 years after graffiti first appeared on Roman streets, authorities have decided enough is enough.

Faced with the worst graffiti problem in Europe, with messages -- mostly indecipherable -- scrawled over public buildings, restaurants and shops throughout the city, the Italian Government has announced jail terms for culprits caught spraying buildings.

The move comes after the abject failure of a get-tough initiative by Rome's city council, in which a squad of 50 officials roamed the streets to safeguard the city's precious architecture.

After more than a year of patrols by the Nucleo Decoro Urbano (roughly translated as the Urban Decorum Squad), not one graffiti scrawler has been nabbed.

Yet more buildings than ever have been daubed -- particularly in the popular dining district of Trastavere.

The problem, according to government officials, is that many Romans do not take the issue seriously enough.

"They're still seen by many people as heroic artists somehow persecuted by the establishment," Culture Ministry art and architecture chief Pio Baldi told the Herald Sun.

"We have to change this image so people realise they are just losers."