In recent weeks, Italian heritage has been put to the test. Several iconic monuments were damaged by tourists. In July, a man was seen engraving his name and that of his girlfriend on the Colosseum in Rome.
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In the same city the following month, a woman was filmed walking across the Trevi Fountain to fill her water bottle.
The work was restored in 2018
These incidents had prompted the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, to declare this “The slightest scratch will now be the subject of legal proceedings”.
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On the night of September 3-4, 2023, another tourist made headlines, this time in the city of Florence, by damaging the Fountain of Neptune, an emblematic 16th-century work located in Piazza della Signoria restored in 2018 , reports La Nazione.
The damage is estimated at around €5,000
While he was climbing the monument to take a photo, the man of German origin was damaged “the right front leg” one of the horses and a “Upper part of the red marble chariot”. Shortly after the tourist’s departure, an alarm was raised and he was finally found thanks to images from video surveillance cameras.
This incident could definitely cost him dearly. The municipality estimates the damage at around 5,000 euros, according to Italian media.