Giorgio Del Ghingaro mayor shorts
Giorgio Del Ghingaro, mayor of Viareggio DEL GHINGARO/FACEBOOK

An Italian mayor was embarrassed in front of his friends on Wednesday night (9 August) when he was asked to leave a restaurant because he was wearing shorts. Giorgio Del Ghingaro, mayor of Viareggio in Tuscany, was deemed too scruffy by a waiter at Club Nautico.

Del Ghingaro had met with a couple of friends at the exclusive beachside restaurant in the Tuscan town where he is the democratically elected leader.

But rules are rules.

As the group took their seats on the terrace, an embarrassed waiter had the unpleasant task of informing him that, as he was not wearing trousers, he had to leave.

"I admit it was a bit humiliating," Del Ghingaro said in a Facebook post accompanying a picture of the offending green Bermuda shorts.

The mayor said he accepted the establishment's policy but could not quite disguise his irritation in the lengthy post.

"I did not know that there were such strict rules during August in a club on the port, but quite rightly ignorance is not allowed and I can only take note that in that place you have to go with long trousers, even if i keep asking myself how a person can know if no one tells him or writes it in the lobby," he complained.

"I asked myself a question, in that place, will they check in addition to the clothes, the criminal records, residence permits, the tax code, the certificate of sound and robust Constitution, the fishing card, the colour of the skin, the Party, graduation certificate?" he philosophised.

Del Ghingaro, 59, has been mayor of Viareggio since 2015. He represents the regional movement called 'BuonVento', which is committed to environmental issues.

Giorgio Del Ghingaro mayor shorts
The Bermuda shorts at the centre of the storm DEL GHINGARO/FACEBOOK