City acts after backlash over videos showing "wall" of plastic cables overlooking the Roman Forum.Rome’s waste company Ama has removed thousands of disposable earphones that tourists had tied to railings overlooking the Roman Forum, after videos of the phenomenon spread on social media and prompted complaints about urban decorum.Workers from Ama’s street-cleaning unit began the clean-up on Wednesday, just off the central Via dei Fori Imperiali. The earphones are the single-use sets handed out to groups on guided tours, allowing visitors to hear their guide without crowding around. At the end of the tour, many tourists knotted the earphones to the fence outside the Roman Forum ticket office, with the imitation effect creating a “wall” of multicoloured plastic. After the love lock trend, tourists in Rome leave behind thousands of earphones on the fence overlooking the Roman Forum. https://t.co/XUe0fJSm6X — Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) November 4, 2026 Images and videos online drew the attention of Rome’s city hall, which ordered the area to be cleaned. The trend was widely compared to the “love locks” left at locations around the city, including on the Roman Forum railings.Ama said the earphones are classed as electronic waste, and will be disposed of according to the procedures required for the recycling of plastic and metal components. Photo Wanted in Rome

Rome’s waste company Ama has removed thousands of disposable earphones that tourists had tied to railings overlooking the Roman Forum, after videos of the phenomenon spread on social media and prompted complaints about urban decorum. Workers from Ama’s street-cleaning unit began the clean-up on Wednesday, just off the central Via dei Fori Imperiali. The earphones are the single-use sets handed out to groups on guided tours, allowing visitors to hear their guide without crowding around. At the end of the tour, many tourists knotted the earphones to the fence outside the Roman Forum ticket office, with the imitation effect creating a “wall” of multicoloured plastic. After the love lock trend, tourists in Rome leave behind thousands of earphones on the fence overlooking the Roman Forum. https://t.co/XUe0fJSm6X — Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) Images and videos online drew the attention of Rome’s city hall, which ordered the area to be cleaned. The trend was widely compared to the “love locks” left at locations around the city, including on the Roman Forum railings.

Ama said the earphones are classed as electronic waste, and will be disposed of according to the procedures required for the recycling of plastic and metal components. Photo Wanted in Rome