Mayor Dario Nardella announced the initiative on Wednesday morning, and at lunchtime the first cleanings took place.  Fed up with hordes of tourists snacking on the steps of Renaissance churches and lounging in the streets, the mayor of Florence has come up with a radical approach — hose down the surfaces so they are too wet to sit on. The steps of the Basilica of Santa Croce, the burial place of Michelangelo, will be the first to be hosed down, taking place at about lunchtime, in order to stop visitors from eating on them, followed by the Chiesa di Santo Spirito.  Dario Nardella to discourage people from ‘camping out’ by hosing down steps of Basilica of Santa Croce and other sites 
 
 The mayor of Florence has told tourists they will “get wet” if they settle down for lunch on the steps of some of the city’s prized churches as he is turning to hosepipes to restore “decorum” among visitors to the Renaissance city. READ MORE: 
 
 In Florence, food has been a key issue, and the city has passed regulations ordering new restaurants in the historic centre to sell only food which is at least 70 percent locally sourced. Nardella also blocked an application from McDonald's to open a restaurant in the main square after a social media campaign by locals, a move which prompted the fast food chain to threaten legal action against the city.
– The mayor of Florence says some tourists have no "decorum" these days—something he hopes to fix with a water hose. Mayor Dario Nardella says a small number of the Italian city's 12 million annual tourists—particularly day-trippers from cruise ships—have taken to "camping out" on church steps at lunchtime. They "sit down on church steps, eat their food, and leave rubbish strewn on them," with no respect for "our cultural heritage," Nardella tells the Guardian. He says city officials thought about handing out fines to such tourists, but they decided instead to get creative. The plan: Use water hoses to soak church steps. That way, if tourists sit down, "they'll get wet," Nardella said in announcing the strategy Wednesday. Shortly after the announcement, the steps of both the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Chiesa di Santo Spirito were doused. In the future, this will be a daily occurrence, reports the Telegraph. "Instead of imposing fines, we thought this measure was more elegant," Nardella tells the Guardian, adding other areas might eventually get a wash as well. While some social media users joked that a free shower might be nice in the heat of summer, others have accused city officials of being "elitist" in targeting tourists who choose not to eat in Florence's restaurants, per the Local. Nardella counters that the city has plenty of outdoor seating for tourists. Churches, however, are no place for a picnic, he says. (Barcelona has an issue with its tourists, too.)