Vatican newly requires all people who enter its territory to wear clothes that cover knees and arms. It does not matter if you are a teenage girl who wants to see the basilica or 80 year old lady who just wants to buy some medicine in local pharmacy. If you are not properly dressed the Swiss guards will not let you in.
It was required to cover one’s knees and arms if you wanted to enter St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican. The same regulation now applies to the whole city-state. Vatican wants tourists as well as Romans to dress ‘properly’ if they want to enter its territory. They will not be allowed in wearing shorts or clothes that do not cover arms.
Swiss guards, which is the ceremonial guard of Vatican, stop improperly dressed people on the border of the Vatican city-state and does not let them in. The new regulation is particularly unpleasant for local inhabitants who were used to behave and dress the same in Vatican and in Rome. They consider this new regulation as a new bureaucratic obstruction.
According to ANSA agency, the guards told the confused people that this is the City of Vatican and to show proper respect, it is not allowed to enter with uncovered shoulders or wearing shorts. Some of them left without protests. However, many women had to buy scarves from a nearby stall to be let in.
Not everyone is happy with the regulation. Romans, especially the older ones, come to Vatican because of its pharmacies as they sell medicine at lower prices than the Roman ones. Some old people traveled here a long distance in hot weather and were not allowed in. The guard recommended a nearly 80 year old lady to dress properly next time if she wants to enter the city state. Angrily, she demanded to know what right the church has to order her how to dress when it itself faces numerous scandals.