AT THE Bar della Pace near Piazza Navona, as in countless other bars, cafés and restaurants across Italy, the air was thick with cigarette smoke as customers enjoyed a last night of unrestricted smoking.

Even Emanuela, the waitress, was puffing away before the ban on smoking in public places, which comes into force today. “I might give it up altogether,” she said.

Some customers also said that they would try to quit. Others were outraged by what they see as a misguided attempt to import political correctness into a country with 14 million smokers — more than a quarter of the adult population.

In Italy, cigarettes — like many other vices — have been widely embraced as part of the la dolce vita. Many café and restaurant-owners have vowed to ignore a clause requiring them to call the police if they catch customers lighting up.

The new law bans smoking in offices, bars, restaurants, hotels, theatres, discos and cafés, with owners facing fines of up to €2,200 (£1,500) if they fail to enforce it. Illicit smokers face a fine of up to €275, doubled if the offence takes place in the presence of children under 12 or pregnant women.

Nazareno Sacchini, head of the association of Rome restaurants, called the law “absurd”.

Last night many bars and restaurants held “last cigarette” parties and chemists reported a rush for anti-nicotine plasters and chewing gum.

Bars and restaurants can set up special smoking areas, but they must be ventilated, amount to less than half of the total space and be sealed off by an automatic door. Many cafés and restaurants lack the resources and space. So far only 2 per cent have set up smoking areas. At Dal Bolognese, one of Rome’s most fashionable restaurants, Alfredo Tomaselli, the manager, said that it had cost him €40,000 to do so.

The ban, which was due to come into force at the end of last month, was delayed for the Christmas and new year holiday. Girolamo Sirchia, the Health Minister, who is accused by the smoking lobby of being a “self-righteous puritan”, said that polls showed he had the backing of 80 per cent of Italians for the new law.

“Even smokers will thank me one day,” Dr Sirchia said, adding that many bars were “like gas chambers” and that 80,000 Italians a year died of “smoking-related diseases”.

Antonio Martino, the Defence Minister, a smoker since the age of 18, said that he intended to continue smoking at Cabinet meetings. A group of militant smokers said that its members would stage a smoke-in in a bar at Rome’s central railway station today. In Naples a cinema showing the film Nicotina said customers with a packet of cigarettes would be given free tickets.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?