The uneven cobbles that line the streets and narrow alleyways of Rome have long been admired by tourists, but residents have warned the centuries-old stones close to St Peter's Square are under threat due to a Vatican plan to cover them with asphalt.
Residents of the city-state have formed an action group to fight the commercialisation of the area, which has seen cheap tourist restaurants and gaudy shops selling religious trinkets multiply and expand on to pavements of the neighbourhood's ancient alleyways.
The campaigners have vowed to stop the character of the area, named Borgo Pio, being further eroded.
But they are on a collision course with the Vatican which wants the sampietrini, as the cobblestones are known, in three streets around St Peter's Square to be covered with asphalt.
Moreno Prosperi, the leader of the Committee for the Safeguard of Borgo, told Corriere della Sera: "These streets are now a sort of open-air canteen."