Taxpayers to foot bill for de Blasio aides on Italy trip

The price tag to city taxpayers for the trio of mayoral aides joining Mayor Bill de Blasio on his delayed Italian getaway will be $12,764.38 -- a figure that doesn't include the cost of NYPD bodyguards who are required to be with him at all times, the mayor's press office said Friday.

The aides traveling with de Blasio are his top spokesman, Phillip Walzak; his chief of staff, Laura Santucci; and press aide Monica Klein.

The mayor is paying for himself and his family. The aides are coming along because the mayor has several public events and meetings during the trip. The costs include flights, per diem expenses and hotels for the staff, but the aides will pay their own way on days when they don't have official duties, said spokeswoman Marti Adams.

Adams referred questions to the NYPD on the bodyguard costs and how many cops are accompanying the mayor. An NYPD spokesman said the department could not immediately provide details. While in the city, de Blasio generally travels with two or three or more plainclothes officers.

De Blasio was supposed to depart for Italy Friday night. He postponed the trip a day in light of an uproar over the death of a Staten Island man whom a police officer placed in a chokehold during an arrest Thursday.