ROME — Maiken Offerdal of Norway and her teenage sons were just sitting down on Rome’s famed Spanish Steps on Wednesday when they heard two shrieks of a whistle.

A police officer walked over and tut-tutted: No sitting, he said sternly.

Never mind the long tradition of lounging on the fabled spot — a scene perhaps best evoked by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the 1953 film “Roman Holiday” — sitting on the Spanish Steps is now subject to a fine of 400 euros, or about $450, under new municipal rules that ban a variety of activities in the city’s historic center.

The regulations are intended to “guarantee decorum, security and legality” by prohibiting actions that are “not compatible with the historic and artistic decorum” of Rome’s center, according to the city’s website.

So Anita Ekberg’s famed dip in the Trevi Fountain in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”? That would cost her as much as €450, or about $500, today.