ROME – Long-neglected parks across the Eternal City may have found their unlikely hero. Sheep, goats and potentially even cows are set to flock into the Italian capital to play the role of “natural lawnmowers,” the city’s mayor has announced.

 Five Star’s Virginia Raggi, current mayor of Rome, is looking to follow the Berlin model by introducing herds of sheep and goats into the city centre.

 For years, maintenance of the capital’s extensive parkland has been overlooked; a series of budget cuts have persuaded city authorities to bypass the need to stretch deeper into Rome’s penniless pockets.

 The freethinking proposal was first put forward by Rome Environment Councillor, Pinuccia Montanari, who described the “simple method of keeping the grass down” to InBlu Radio listeners.

 “Rome is one of the largest territories in Europe with 44 million square meters of green to be managed,” Montanari said, as Raggi combs through new low-cost measures to keep the cash-strapped city intact.

 The deteriorating state of Rome’s parks, often concealed beneath the growing issue of the city’s stockpiling, uncollected rubbish, sees grass frequently reach chest-height, swallowing up park benches in its path.

 “We are already experimenting with the use of sheep to cut the grass in the Caffarella park – an activity that works very well and where sheep mow a large area,” Montanari said.

 “The City of Rome already owns sheep, owns two farms in Tenuta del Cavaliere and Castel di Guido,” even throwing cows into the equation to tackle areas of particularly thick vegetation.

 Nevertheless, opposition parties were less convinced by Raggi’s radical plans.

 Democratic Party politician, Orlando Corsetti, was swift to make a mockery of the mayor’s latest proposal.

 “Raggi clearly deeply loves animals because she has filled the city with rats, seagulls and wild boar which feed off uncollected rubbish, so a few goats would complete Five Star’s Roman zoo.”

 Yet, despite the widespread criticism and taunting, the former head of WWF Italia, Fulco Pratesi, was full of praise for the idea, describing the reintroduction of animals as “a return to nature.”

 Sheep and goats could graze from spring through to early winter, “avoiding the need for pesticides and herbicides, which are devastating to the ecosystem,” Pratesi said.

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