The cast of “Jersey Shore” is heading to Florence, Italy, to film its next season — and the city’s mayor is already laying down the law.
“I will not allow them to use the Palazzo Vecchio or other historic buildings,” Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera yesterday, “but I cannot ban them from using our city as a set.”
News that the guidos and guidettes of the MTV hit were going to art-centric Florence rather than one of Italy’s beach-party resorts on the Mediterranean was a big surprise.
Italian MTV has just started showing “Jersey Shore,” and the news media there have not been pleased at its portrayal of their American cousins.
The cast is due in Italy on May 9.
According to news reports, Mayor Renzi required producers to agree to a number of party-pooping rules if they want to film in the city of Michelangelo and Dante:
* No shooting in bars, clubs or any place that promotes the reckless consumption of alcohol.
* The cast is prohibited from drinking in public on camera.
* Florence may not be portrayed as a drinking town.
* And the cast must interact with authentic Italian people in authentic cultural settings — thus avoiding the city’s hordes of tourists and students.