Residents in Rome's Trastevere Fight Back Against Rowdy Tourists with Water Buckets
In Trastevere, a 74-year-old resident and a local committee are dousing noisy, drunk tourists with water as a protest against overtourism and disruptive behavior.
Every evening, 74-year-old Simonetta Marcellini lines three water buckets by her Trastevere window and douses noisy, often drunk British and American tourists who disturb the neighbourhood. After polite warnings are ignored, she resorts to the water as a deterrent. In 2019 she created the Comitato Emergenza Trastevere, now counting roughly a thousand members who convene to improve local quality of life.
The initiative stems from a dramatic rise in visitors - Rome recorded 22.9 million tourists in 2025, far exceeding its population, with national overnight stays hitting a record 256 million this summer. Residents across Italy and other European hotspots, from Barcelona to the Canary Islands, are similarly confronting overtourism, sometimes with water pistols or street protests. Local officials, such as Marco Di Gangi of the Brothers of Italy party, warn against demonising tourism and call for smarter regulation. Yet, with limited official action, citizens like Marcellini continue their nightly water campaigns to protect their homes.
