Stairway to tension: France and Italy dispute ownership of Spanish Steps

"I am really very astonished that one can interpret and distort the meaning of a report by the French Court of Auditors that addresses the French and in particular the "Pieux Établissements" for the management of religious property in Italy," Pierre Moscovici, the President of the Court of Auditors, told the Italian news agency ANSA.

His comments sought to calm a controversy that has arisen over the ownership and maintenance of Rome's iconic Spanish Steps (Scalinata) - a subject that exploded earlier this month following the publication of a report by the French Court of Auditors on the real estate managed by France in Rome.

These ownership disputes between Italy and France threaten to add tension at the G7 Ministers' Meeting on Culture, which is taking place this weekend in Naples and Pompeii.

In their report, the French magistrates wrote that a "confirmation of the legal status" of the Spanish Steps is needed to "clarify responsibilities in terms of maintenance and restoration".

The site, one of Rome's most iconic for millions of tourists, was designed by Italian architects Francesco De Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi between 1723 and 1726. It was built with "French funds and managed until the end of the 19th century by the Pieux Établissements," the report points out, but thereafter its care was always Italian and was negligent, according to the French judges.

Among the first to comment on the report last week was Italy's Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè: "What would France be without Italy. They cannot do without our luxury, our works, our beauty,' she wrote on social media. "But now they exaggerate. They even want to take the Spanish Steps of Trinità dei Monti."

"It's a laugh," said Chamber of Deputies Vice-President