ROME -- An 'anti-smog Sunday' is planned for Rome this week, as levels of smog continue to rise in the capital. The city's administration has ordered that on Sunday Jan. 31st no vehicles will be able to run between 7.30am and 12.30pm and between 4.30pm and 8.30pm, except less polluting ones (those running on natural gas or LPG, hybrid and Euro 6 vehicles, two-wheeled four-stroke-engine Euro 2 mopeds and four-stroke-engine Euro 3 motorcycles).

 Authorities have emphasised that ATAC services will be reinforced on the Sunday, with extra bus and metro routes laid out.

 The provision, laid out by Rome's Special Commissioner, was "adopted as a cautionary measure with the aim of protecting the health of the citizens, in consideration of the general state of the air quality." It follows a similar act in November last year, and is part of a cycle of four days of total traffic limitation, to be put into practice between November and March.

 The Campidoglio said that the operation was a result of "the repeated exceeding of pollution threshold limits," and warned that if smog levels continue to rise in the following days an alternative number plate system will be enforced for the first two days of February.

 This is in addition to the enforced prevention of more polluting vehicles inside Rome's Fascia Verde ['Green Face'] on Tuesday Jan. 26, between 7.30am and 8.30pm.   ft