No city for horses. Horses and carriages to be confined to parks
As promised during last year’s election campaign, environmental commissioner Estella Marino has announced that starting next January, horse-drawn carriages will be able to circulate only in Rome’s park. The means predominantly Rome’s Villa Borghese park where new stables are currently under construction.
No place for a horse!
The news was greeted favorably by Rome’s animal rights associations who feel this is a first step to ending what they considered to be exploitation of horses. It should at least put a stop to the fatal accidents that in recent years have been caused by motor vehicle traffic, uneven cobblestones and high summer temperatures.
Rome’s buggy drivers are likely to be a lot less pleased. Two summers ago after a horse collapsed in harness leading the former center-right mayor, Gianni Alemanno (now missed even by liberals like me because his control of the city was better than that of the current mayor) to attempt to enforce a similar regulation, scuffles broke out between “animalisti” and drivers in downtown Piazza di Spagna that left five people injured.
