Rome to have red light section?
Prostitutes in Rome
Hard to believe, but the Rome city government is planning, for the first time ever, to create a red light district here in Rome, probably on one street in the EUR area of Rome which is already inundated by half-naked prostitutes selling their wares. The experiment, to begin in April of this year, is being promoted by Andrea Santoro, the president of the XI municipality and by the city’s Welfare Commissioner. Mr. Santori has told reporters that the idea is to clean up the area as a whole by reserving one or two streets to the purveyors of what is often called the oldest profession in the world. The expected cost of the project would be only €5000 a month, mostly to pay social workers who would be monitoring the activities of the ladies of the night and making sure they are not being exploited by pimps or johns.. Clients picking up streetwalkers outside of this “tolerance zone” would be subject to fines of up to €500. News reports today said the majority of the city’s other municipalities (as elected neighborhood governments are called here) were favorable to the idea but you can bet residents of nearby streets may not be in agreement.
Italy once had a system of legal brothels, known as case chiuse or closed houses, but these were abolished in 1954 by a law, the Merlin Law, which sought to free these women from exploitation. The older system, however, did have the advantage of limiting sidewalk prostitution and, at least on paper, called for regular physical examinations for prostitutes. Nowadays, there is no visible regulation of prostitution and while it is not everywhere, there are areas of the city known for supplying this kind of service.
P.S. A few days after the “red light” plan was announced, the Rome attorney general nixed it, saying it would constitute facilitation of prostitution. Ridiculous, as they facilitate themselves and this, however strange, would have at least put them all in the same area so residents of nearby streets could have some peave!
