If you’ve ever fed pigeons before, be warned: it could mean you part with wads of hard earned cash, that is if you do it in St. Mark’s Square, located in the centre of Venice.
City officials banned the common practice of feeding the local pigeons that frequent the square, in a bid to stop the flying rodents ruining their UNESCO status city.
The ban has been in effect since 2008, and offending can land you will a bill for anything up to £622 (€700) – roughly the cost of a six night stay in one of the city’s best value hotels .
If you are lucky, you might be fined nearer the lower end: a still painful £62 (€70) – the cost of three Bellinis at flash Venice venue, Harry’s Bar.
It has previously been estimated there are 40,000 pigeons living in Venice’s 2.5 square miles, although this figure may have dropped since the ban.
The birds have been a major problem for the city, costing each Venetian taxpayer a whopping €275 euros a year.
They are blamed for spreading dirt and faeces around the city, ruining the valued facades and monuments in the process.
Back in July, thousands of Venetian locals campaigned against the huge numbers of tourists in their city, complaining of the associated rising house prices and convenience shops being replaced for tourist shops.
Other weird foreign laws including a ban on seeing in the ocean in Portugal, although there are no well-known cases of anyone getting caught (unsurprisingly).
It is also illegal to wear pointy heels in Greece at certain monuments, including the Odeon in Athens and the Acropolis in Attiki.
Archaeologists say the killer stilettos will “poke” the marble in the 200 year old sites, putting them under a substantial strain.
In a report published by the Foreign Office, it was found 27 per cent of cases of Brits requiring assistance abroad was for arrests or detentions.
Charles Hay, consular services director at the FO, said Brits often found themselves breaking foreign laws without even realising they were doing anything wrong.
“Every year British nationals find themselves on the wrong side of the law unexpectedly, resulting in fines or in some cases arrests or even jail sentences.
“It is important to remember that laws and customs can vary greatly from country to country and what may be perfectly legal in the UK could be subject to a fine or even a jail sentence in another.”
He also commented that Brits abroad often feel foreign rules may not apply to them, and that their powerful British passport was a “get out of jail free” card.
