A teenage tourist has sparked fury after reportedly carved his initials on a wall of the Colosseum in Rome.
The 19-year-old tourist has been charged with damage to cultural property, which carries a prison sentence of two to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 15,000 euros.
The Ukrainian tourist has been reported and could be fined up to 15,000 euros for carving his initials on one of the walls of the Colosseum in Rome, in a new act of vandalism against the monument.
Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, said in a statement: “The intervention of the police, who arrested and punished the perpetrator of the new act of vandalism against the Colosseum, is a good thing.
“In a city full of treasures that are part of the heritage of humanity, there can certainly be no place for hooligans and idiots.”
This is a new act of vandalism, similar to the one that went around the world when 27-year-old Ivan Dimitrov, a resident of Bristol (UK), was filmed writing his initials and those of his girlfriend on one of the walls of the Flavian amphitheatre.
In the end, the tourist was ordered to pay a fine of around 1,000 euros for his act of vandalism and avoided prosecution. Dimitrov also sent a letter of apology to the Mayor of Rome and the Prosecutor’s Office.
More than 100 visitors came to museums, archaeological parks and state-owned cultural sites that remained open on August bank holiday.
This was announced directly by the Ministry of Culture.
At the Flavian Amphitheatre, more than 22,000 tourists and Romans crossed the thousand-year-old arches.
Thus the Colosseum confirmed itself as the most visited tourist site in Italy on this August bank holiday of art and culture.
The Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, was also among the more than 20,000 people at the Colosseum who visited the archaeological park yesterday.
The Minister said: “I wanted to personally thank the workers who ensured that our museums were open and welcomed visitors.”
He was accompanied by the head of the Department for the Enhancement of Cultural Heritage, Alfonsina Russo, the undersecretary for Culture, Gianmarco Mazzi, and the commander of the Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, General Francesco Gargaro.