After my recent blog entry on busking in Italy, I got a reply from a fellow Renaissance festival entertainer, Vince Conaway. He had this to say about Italian busking:

I just ran across your July 16 post on Italian busking. I'm going to be busking in Italy next June and July based on trials I made while touring Europe with the Aerial Angels this month. Regulations are really lenient (this from talking to both buskers and cops), with “permit” laws very slackly enforced. The penalty for busking without a permit is…”move along”, and is generally only used against buskers who are deemed a nuisance. Also, the police do not enforce permits, and the officials who do don't have powers to fine or arrest.

As far as effectiveness, I'd recommend doing some busking at home first. Faires are the obvious beginning. Also, busking in downtown Cincinnati isn't all that different from busking in Florence, and the key skills of getting a crowd and getting them to give are the same. The biggest challenge I faced in Italy was that the audiences I had were really unimpressed by Celtic music, but fortunately they really liked my original material.

I would definitely recommend it, but you might want to give it a trial before going full-on. I'm thrilled that I did the busking while overseas for other reasons (performing at festivals with the Angels) because it gave me the chance to experiment without needing to live off my efforts. I just wish I'd brought more CD's – the ten I did bring went very quickly (I'm looking into alternative packaging to make it easier to bring them overseas next year, and IIRC – I'm going to double check – customs in Rome didn't care about merchandise while the customs officials elsewhere, particularly England, give you the third degree over any hint you might do any sort of work locally). Take a vacation, bring the autoharp, and give it a shot!

-Vince

Thanks a million Vince! That is some great information.