Rome's famed 'love lock' bridge has sparked a row between leftwingers who want to clean it up and rightwing opponents who say it should remain a shrine to eternal love.
Lamp posts along the Milvian Bridge have been bristling with locks in the wake of a successful recent romantic book and film, Tre Metri Sopra Il Cielo (Three Metres Above The Sky).
Imitating the protagonists, young Romans started writing their names on locks, attaching them to the lamp posts and throwing the keys into the Tiber.
But now local leftwing politicians say the ancient Roman bridge simply can't bear the weight of the locks any more.
"The lamp posts are buckling and even the bridge itself is beginning to wobble," said Massimo Denaro, chief local councillor for Mayor Walter Veltroni's Ulivo group.
"This isn't just any bridge - it's where Rome's first Christian Emperor Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius in 312 AD".
"It's not that we're against lovers. We just think an alternative site should be found. And all the existing locks could be melted down and the money given to charity".
Marco Clarke, the head councillor for the rightwing National Alliance, dismissed the suggestion.
"This bridge has become a new monument to love. Young people come from all over the world to make their undying pledges with these locks," he said.
"The Left doesn't understand the importance of these things," he claimed, citing the precedent of the leftwing mayor of Florence who had a similar mountain of love locks removed from the historic Ponte Vecchio last year.
The author of the original novel, Federico Moccia, said he was "appalled" by the news.
"Kids from all over Italy, Spain, France and other places come to Ponte Milvio to say their 'forevers'. Japanese tourists have included the bridge on their tours, snapping away at the locks as if they were a monument".
"And in fact they are. Just as Verona has the balcony of Romeo and Juliet, Rome has the lovers' bridge. With all the other things that blot the landscape, why should people try to remove dreams?"
Moved by the writer's plea, Mayor Veltroni said he would send in a team of experts to see "if the bridge's stability is actually being jeopardized".
"If it isn't, I see no reason why the love locks shouldn't remain".
