The sofa floating in the middle of Rome's Tiber River

ROME, according to Titus Livius, was a city overwhelmed by its own greatness.

Well, it looks like a few things have changed since Livy choked his last in AD 17…now it’s just overwhelmed by crap.

This shocking picture of the supposedly beautiful Tiber River in the city has sparked a national outcry in Italy.

The country has been painstakingly slow to confront its environmental problems with the nation’s rivers and coasts polluted by industrial and agricultural contaminants – and its lakes contaminated by acid rain.

Italian Environmental groups have long criticised the failure of central government and regional authorities to tackle the problems of pollution have now used this photo to highlight the scandal.

Green campaigner Tito Longo, 36, from the association ‘Biciroma‘ that wants more people to use cycles and dump cars said: “The bizarre image of this dumped sofa in the middle of the Tiber River and against the background of Rome should highlight people that this is a problem on our doorsteps that will not go away unless we act.”

The sofa is surrounded by other floating waste