Figured I'd add this to this thread, since it's all romantic and stuff. I love how these Italian politicians have a little respect for love and romance... From the UK's Telegraph:
Lovers' padlock fad causes Roman uproar
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 1:55am GMT 10/03/2007
A teenage fad to attach padlocks to Rome's oldest bridge as a sign of unbreakable love has caused a political ruckus and triggered a mysterious theft.
Every week, hundreds of teenage couples visit the Ponte Milvio and testify to their everlasting love by writing their names on a padlock and clipping it to a chain wrapped around two of the bridge's lampposts. They then throw the keys into the Tiber.
The fad was immortalised last year in I Want You, a romantic novel by Federico Moccia, which has just been turned into a film.
However, the lampposts are now so overburdened that some opposition members of the local council tabled a motion to remove the padlocks and clean up the bridge.
There were also fears that the imminent release of the film would lead to a spike in the number of padlocks. Teenagers from outside of Rome have started to arrive in the city in order to make a pilgrimage to "the Bridge of Love".
Massimo Denaro, the Left-wing councillor who tabled the motion, said: "Lately, the wheel of a scooter has been tied on, and padlocks are also being attached to the Torretta Gate next to the bridge, which has just been restored."
He said he hoped a structure could be built next to the bridge to hold the padlocks. However, the move provoked scorn from the Right-wing members of the council, who accused their socialist colleagues of being "anti-romance".
"There are so many stupidly hateful people these days who want to strike out at people who are really in love. The message of the padlocks is strong and extremely positive," said Marco Daniele Clarke, the assessor for public works in the municipality.
Federico Guidi, a member of the neo-fascist National Alliance added that he saw no reason why the bridge could not emulate the success of Romeo and Juliet's balcony in Verona.
As the politicians squabbled, however, many chains vanished earlier this week and some padlocks were found smashed on the ground. Only a few remained at the top of one of the lampposts, prompting the police to comment that the person responsible for their removal must have either been "very short" or "afraid of climbing on the balustrade to get all the chains".
Conspiracy theories immediately flared up, many of them targeted at the Left-wing councillors, who strenuously denied having anything to do with it.
A secret group calling itself the "Spontaneous Unlockers of the Ponte Milvio" also denied any involvement, but admitted that it occasionally took some of the chains because the fad was "a banal gesture, an act of fake romanticism."
The chains were eventually found at a scrapyard a mile away. Police said two Romany gypsies had cut them off and carried away the 713kg of steel in a convoy of shopping trollies. The owner of the scrapyard said he had paid 13 euros for the metal.
Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome, said the people who had taken the padlocks had "no poetry in their hearts" and that they should remain on the bridge.
"It is a simple and beautiful act, a romantic gesture of love that signals the links between two people. It surprises me that there has been a political movement against the padlocks. At heart, this practice gives the city a romantic tone," he said.
