Mother calls police to topless sunbather for troubling her boys!

ROME, Italy - August 11, 2010 - A mother of two boys aged 12 and 14 reported a topless bather to police because the way she applied suntan lotion was "troubling" her sons.

The 26-year-old sunbather, identified only as Luisa under Italian privacy laws, was questioned by officers, who have opened an obscenity investigation.

The mother had initially asked the woman, an assistant in a fashion store, to cover herself up as her "ample" breasts and the act of rubbing suncream on her body had disturbed the boys, she said.

The sunbather, who was on a public beach at Anzio south of Rome, refused. When police arrived, she remonstrated with them, still unclothed, to the amusement of other holidaymakers.

The case has triggered a wider debate in Italy about topless bathing.

Gianluca Arrighi, the sunbather's lawyer, said, "Something like this happening in 2010 is absurd.

"My client was approached and asked to cover up by the woman and she simply asked her what her problem was.

"From there the woman gathered up her children and went and complained to police, bringing the officers to the scene where Luisa was still on the beach sunbathing.

"The fact a file has been opened is compulsory following the complaint but I can't imagine any judge in 2010 convicting a woman for sunbathing topless.

"Let's be clear, my client is tall, brunette and has an ample breast and is therefore naturally going to be sensuous when she applies cream to her chest. This may well have attracted the attention of the woman's two sons but it should not lead to my client being convicted. She is amazed that she is being condemned for simply sunbathing topless."

He insisted that it was not illegal to sunbathe topless on a public beach, unless there was a local bylaw. A comment article in La Repubblica newspaper said, "Summer is the season where everything happens but it is also the time of pathological mentalities... where was she supposed to apply the cream? On her clothes?"

Topless sunbathing has fallen out of fashion in recent years.

In both France and Italy far fewer women abandon their bikini tops on the beach.

Countess Barbara Ronchi della Rocca, an Italian etiquette expert, said, "The beach is no longer the place where you go to get a tan.

"Nowadays people arrive bronzed already, having spent the winter in tanning salons, and they spend their time at the beach bar semi-clothed and socializing instead."