Italy has spurned private property rights and is demanding that restauranteurs not allow their patrons to smoke. What's more they are taking the New York City approach and making bar managers put themselves at risk and police the new rules.

Making bartenders and waitresses enforce the anti-smoking rules has already proved fatal in NYC when annoyed patrons became violent. They don't have the luxury of having a badge and a gun to enforce the law like cops do. The other trend that the Italians will notice is people going outside for a smoke and not coming back to pay their check. The increase in theft means we'll all be footing a higher bill.

But Italy isn't New York, and Italians aren't taking the new rules lying down. Many restaurant and bar owners have said that they will not enforce the rules. The effectiveness of the ban will depend mostly on how much pressure police put on local business owners. New York faced similar sentiment, but Mayor Bloomberg was able to crush it by ratcheting up a gestapo organization that ticketed citizens for everything from smoking, to illegal signage, to sitting on a milk crate.