Florence Accused of Neglecting Churches

Church officials in Florence have intervened to turn down the heat of a blazing row with the city's administration, set off by the American canon of Florence's Duomo cathedral who accused leftwing councillors of turning a blind eye to the "trashing" of religious monuments.

Monsignor Timothy Verdon said: "The cathedrals and basilicas of Florence are being humiliated by crime, chaos and filth.

"This lack of care is an offence to the Christian roots of the city and those responsible for it are those responsible for the civic life of Florence."

Mgr Verdon compared what he claimed was the neglect of places of worship with the attention given to secular spaces, such as the Piazza della Signoria.

"The abandonment is a sign of the secularisation of the city," the canon said.

Attention has been focused on the issue in recent months by the presence of homeless people sleeping in the streets around the cathedral. Mgr Verdon decried the dozens of souvenir vendors at the Duomo's exit and the rubbish bins in the piazza which, he said, were "already spilling over by midday".

The city's mayor, Leonardo Domenici, reacted by saying: "Mgr Verdon has damaged Florence." The councillor for cultural affairs, Simone Siliani, said the canon's remarks were "unusual, disproportionate and, to some extent, offensive".

In a conciliatory note, the archdiocese of Florence expressed "regret for the tone in which the issue ... was raised". But it insisted that the care of areas around the main places of worship was an "urgent problem".

Other clerics backed Mgr Verdon. "It's not the Florence you used to see: the drawing room of Europe," said Monsignor Angelo Livi at San Lorenzo, the city's oldest church.

There is disquiet in Italy over tourism. Venice is to put up signs in St Mark's Square warning that those who picnic in the square and leave litter risk fines of £35.