Broken tour

This may explain what city officials had in mind when they posted signs that said in Italian: "Only the guides authorized by the city of Siena can illustrate the interior and exterior of the city." The signs did not mention authorized teachers or state the law that conferred this authority. Also on the sign was a statement that UNESCO had designated Siena as a world heritage site. In an article published in the Florence-based newspaper La Nazione on Oct. 3, 2002, the regional tourist superintendent Donatella Cinelli Colombini explained that the signs were essential because "the exceptionality of Siena determined its designation as a world heritage site by UNESCO."

Among the protections accorded by the UNESCO designation, she declared, was that the city be "explained and described only by authorized tour guides." Though Colombini says she was merely outlining a part of the 1995 presidential decree that allowed regions to regulate their own sites, it's not hard to extrapolate how scholars and teachers might have assumed the UNESCO decision also covered the tour guide issue. Now, Colombini insists the two issues are unconnected. "No, no, no," she says on the phone when asked if UNESCO mandates "official" tour guides. "It is the region, not UNESCO, that says this," she said. The AGT Siena made a similar connection.

On its website the AGT Siena wrote: "As a member of UNESCO world heritage, Siena, together with cities of its province such as San Gimignano, Montalcino, Pienza, Chiusi, Montepulciano and other famous towns in the Orcia Valley such as the Crete, the Chianti zone and the mountain area of Amiata, requires that only officially appointed tour guides accompany tourists during their visits to these towns." Ceccarelli, like Colombini, reiterates the decision is regional. Why their clarity is absent from the website is open to conjecture.

But can the signs intimidate? Ceccarelli smiles at this query. "If you are not guilty you don't have to feel guilty. It is not directed at people who are legal. It is directed at people who are not legal. [The signs] should intimidate people who are not legal. That is the aim of that inscription."

The CET's Ruffalo agrees. "I don't think scholars pay attention to the signs. If you are a scholar and you are coming in to do research in Siena, you're not looking at signs anyway, you're going to do your research." Alei disagrees. If the tour guides really believe teachers and scholars are entitled to comment on what they see, "Why is it not written?" he asks.

Grossman's case finally went to trial on Jan. 27, 2003. The defense was straightforward: Grossman was a scholar leading students. He did not need a tour guide license. As for the defamatory remarks, they stemmed, according to the defense, from an AGT Siena mistranslation from English to Italian. Bielli also argued that Article 348 of the penal code was not applicable in the case because the AGT Siena wasn't recognized by the state as a "guild," which meant it was not entitled to state protection on the license (doctors, for example, have such associations, so do airline pilots.)

Still, Grossman was worried and Bielli uneasy about the outcome. Grossman recalls Bielli mentioning, "This is a trial that is probably not going to go well in Siena." Bielli was right. Grossman was convicted on both counts. The ruling, at a key point, effectively states the following: If the most famous art historian accompanied a group to show them the city's most famous sites, that would in itself, and illegally, constitute the act of being a tourist guide.

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