5:00 PM -- Reuters reports on Venetian efforts to keep a pristine presence in St. Mark's square:

Venice will deploy stewards in Saint Mark's square to prevent tourists from stripping off their T-shirts, taking a nap or dropping fast-food wrappers in the piazza that Napoleon dubbed "the drawing room of Europe."

"Six stewards, men and women, will explain to tourists that it is not a good idea to eat, camp out, lay down or walk around the city bare-chested," said the deputy mayor, Michele Vianello, adding that the stewards would not be handing out fines.

Well, they better provide a pretty damn good explanation because those all sound like fantastic ideas to me!

Now the canal city is also working on laws to stop the sale of fast food in the square "to try to limit the amount or rubbish which is difficult for us to clean up," Vianello told Reuters.

First they stop feeding the pigeons... now, the people?

— Red Panda The Evangelist, Light Reading