Lovers' padlock fad causes Roman uproar

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".


lots more to the story here:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/10/wlocks10.xml

Why post it here? Because most of us are ROMAN Catholics! ;-)

March 19 is St. Joseph's Day, too, and he's the patron saint of Italy, a country I love dearly. And we don't have a forum for romantics/love stories, do we?