City supports lovers

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

Roman authorities have installed steel posts with chains on the Ponte Milvio bridge so that couples can hang padlocks there as a sign of their love. The fad was inspired by last year’s best-selling book I Want You by Federico Moccia, in which the hero concocts a legend that inscribing two names on a lock, attaching it to the bridge, and throwing the key into the river will ensure eternal love. Since the book came out, thousands of locks and chains appeared on the bridge’s lampposts, which began to crumble. Officials who condemned the practice as vandalism were accused of being anti-love. They finally found the solution last week by installing the posts. “We have used good sense, meaning we realize that it is about a primary and innocent feeling,” said city official Silvio Di Francia.