Ice-cream banned after midnight in Milan

It will be forbidden to buy an ice-cream or a take-away bottle of water after midnight in Milan starting from May 17. The proposed new law is intended to counter excessive noise, disruption and abusive behaviour in Milan’s top nightlife areas.

The ban will be in force from May 17 to November 4 and is aimed at, “all types of public establishments, neighbourhood businesses, artisan take-away businesses, commercial activities and vending machines and prohibits the sale and take-away of food and beverages of any kind, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, between midnight and 6am”.

The secretary general of union Confcommercio Milano, Marco Barbieri, said that, “a ban on the sale and take-away of food and beverages of any kind means that from after midnight it will no longer be possible to sell an ice cream cone or even a take-away bottle of water. Does the Council realise what it is doing”?

The solution, he says, is to organise local police monitoring. “In Milan the tax for occupying public land has increased by an average of 40 per cent and the owners of premises with tables and chairs have to pay this. Subtracting two hours of evening work from them seems to me a somewhat excessive sacrifice”.

Local nighbourhood associations, citizens groups, shop owners and unions are preparing for a fight with the local Council in what is likely to become the ‘Ice-cream Wars of 2024’.