Italy: Policing the Pappagalli

The sidewalk Romeos of Rome are among the world's most aggressive. Known locally as "pappagalli" (parrots) for their incessant and provocative chatter ("Eh, bella, you speaka English? Wanna spaghetti? I give you little spaghetti, huh?"), they trail women tourists through the Via Veneto, along the Spanish Steps, and around the Fountain of Trevi. Gabbing often gives way to grabbing, and the pappagalli are adept at supplementing their spiels with patting, pinching and poking.

Such tactics produce mixed reactions. Many a woman considers a visit to Rome a failure without a pinch from a pappagallo. But others are outraged, or at least profess to be. "I'm sick of it," says one American girl. "Some of these Italian men are so puny and pathetic, they have to do something to prove they are men." Many girls have taken to wearing girdles for protection, only to have bottoms painfully bruised by girdlesnappers.

Efforts to police the pappagalli in the past have failed, but now the Roman authorities are taking stern action. The police have assigned 100 special cops, operating in teams at tourist spots and equipped with walkie-talkies, to pinch the pinchers, whose sleights of hand may earn them up to six months in jail or $65 in fines. But there have been no arrests so far, and on several occasions the cops have been told bluntly by seemingly beleaguered beauties to mind their own business.