The expert view

This week, after a £1.3million restoration, the Spanish Steps in Rome reopened to the public (see news, page 3). As it happens, I walked past them a few days ago. They were barricaded off, but the steps themselves were in plain view, glistening white in the evening light.

A couple of weeks ago, Paolo Bulgari, chairman of the company that paid for the restoration, said the restored steps now needed protection from the “barbarian” hordes of tourists or they would simply revert to the “mess” they had fallen into. “People shouldn’t be allowed to use it like the steps of a stadium, sitting for hours, getting drunk and throwing away their cigarette butts.”

His fears are well founded. The Spanish Steps will straight away revert to their previous role as a slightly grotty, overcrowded gathering point for tired, bored tourists and nighttime revellers. Earlier, I had walked past the Trevi Fountain, also gleaming white, also newly restored. So packed, so chaotic was the square in front, that it took me five minutes just to shoulder my way through the crowd. There was zero chance of any of us properly enjoying the view.

What can be done? No one would want to charge for, or restrict access to, the Trevi. Bulgari’s suggestion that the Spanish Steps be closed off at night almost certainly won’t wear. Oscar Wilde said that all men end up killing what they love – and tourism is

A flight ticket lost in translation

QLast September, my boyfriend Nick and I booked two Youthfare flight tickets through STA Travel for a one-way flight from Tokyo to Rome. When we arrived at Narita Airport on June 2 to check in for the Alitalia flight, we were told that we could not fly unless we produced valid student cards. The check-in agent said that our tickets were student fares and we must prove we were still studying.

We pointed out that we had bought Youth tickets, not student ones. STA’s Youth tickets state that you must simply be aged under 30 to qualify for the discounted fare. one of the worst offenders. Rome has special problems, coping with a fragile and extensive archaeological heritage, an ageing infrastructure and a chronic lack of public funding. But there are places where more could be done to control and mitigate the negative sideeffects of tourism. And we could start in London.

Earlier this year, the new director of the National Gallery, Gabriele Finaldi, was bemoaning the noise and anarchy in Trafalgar Square. The pedestrianised space in front of the gallery has degenerated into a squalid free-for-all for buskers and the like.

Finaldi’s previous post was at Madrid’s Prado Museum, a building venerated by the public. The spaces around it would never be allowed to degenerate into the chaos that reigns outside the National Gallery in London. Nor would it be allowed outside the Louvre in Paris, or the Met in New York.

The once special atmosphere of London’s South Bank has also been undermined. Once a civilised cultural space – a riverfront extension to the foyers of the Royal Festival Hall and the National Theatre – at night it now resembles the litter-strewn aftermath of a rock festival.

We do some things well in London. Covent Garden works as an entertainment space. And the Royal Parks are generally kept immaculate – even St James’s Park, caught between Parliament Square and Buckingham Palace, shows that it is possible to keep up standards under pressure.

(We were both 24 at the time of purchase).

Fortunately I had a National Union of Students membership card on me and this was accepted as student ID, but Nick did not. He was told that if he wanted to board the flight he would have to buy a full-fare single ticket which would cost £2,500.

We asked if we could speak to a manager but the check-in clerk refused to summon anyone. After spending an hour attempting to contact the STA emergency helpline (it was the early hours of a Sunday morning UK time), and receiving very little support from Alitalia staff, we managed to find a much cheaper return ticket at £684, which we decided to buy.

This was an unexpected and significant financial blow but we expected that STA Travel would sort a refund out quickly when we contacted the company on our return to the UK at the beginning of July.

While the agent confirmed that we had purchased Youth fares, it said it would have to investigate what had gone wrong with the airline. Six weeks have now gone by and we are no further forward. STA says that Alitalia has not responded. It has advised us that we could escalate the claim by contacting the CAA but staff there have told us that our case is not within its remit. Can you advise us what to do next? AOIFE BRUEN

AThis does sound like a classic case of lost in translation. When a check-in agent refuses to accept a ticket, the first thing to do is to go to the airline’s sales desk and ask to speak to a manager. It sounds as if you did try to do this but to no avail. Thank goodness you realised before it was too late that it was much cheaper to buy a discounted return ticket instead of a full-fare single one. These situations are rare. And because they are so rare, I do feel that travel agents should refund customers quickly. Why should a customer who has clearly been wronged and forced to pay out because of someone else’s mistake have to wait for airline approval when their contract is with the agent?

STA Travel confirmed that it has a sales contract direct with Alitalia so it should be able to use its clout to insist on a speedy refund of the new ticket in a case like this when it is an airline official who has made the mistake. STA told me that it has made “a significant number of calls” to Alitalia’s UK Customer Relations department but it is still waiting for a response.

I am pleased to say that STA agrees that Nick should not continue to suffer financial loss through no fault of his own and I understand he has now been contacted by STA direct to discuss the best way to reimburse the £684 that he had to pay for the new ticket.

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