Lovers thought they had found a good place to express their love last year:Rome's oldset bridge.Young couples begab writing their names on a padlock and fastening it to a chain,around a lamppost on Ponte Milvio(bridge).They would then toss the key into river below to symbolize no escape from each other.
But,lamps atop two light posts crumbled under the weight of thousands of locks and chains.
City officals found a solution:Put six sets of steel posts with chains on the bridge so lovers could declare their love witgout damaging the bridge.
"It's less romantic,"said Costantino Boccuni,a 28-year-old soldier after affixing a lock to one of the new sports to declare his love for his wife.It's more like a fashion."
How'd all this get started?Last year,novelist and sreenwriter Federico Moccia wrote a second installment to his story I wabt you.The hero and his girlfriend wrap a chain around the third lamppost on the bridge's northern side,lock it and throw the kwy into the river,promsing that they will never leace each other.
The book sold 1.1 million copies and there was a movie version.Soon,life begin imitating art.the ancient bridge began to be covered in lovers' graffiti,along with the chains.
This spring,the city cracked down.An artful compromise claearly needed finding-hence,the posts and chains.
Then inevitably,politics got involved,since it was Italy.Right-wing parties began accusing leftist mayor Walter Veltroni,who may some day be prime minister,of a crime far worse than corruption.
"The left is against lovers," one rightist city offical,Marco Clarke,chaarged in February.
So,now lovers have something to fasten their locks.If they insist on putting them on the lampposts,the locks will periodically be aransferred to the posts and chains.
And,the tradition continues,even if it did compromise love.Some Romans comlained that it had become another tourist attraction,complete with vendors selling locks on the spot.Families posed for photos there.
"I would be embarrassed,"said Michael,a 22-year-old photographer assistant."It's a question of dignity.If I want to express love,I will express it my way."
