Two tourists were arrested for riding motorized surfboards down the Grand Canal in Venice on Wednesday morning after the Italian city’s mayor called the duo “idiots” on social media.
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro Posted a video of the surfers whizzing past water buses and taxis, promising to buy dinner for anyone who identified them.
In another clip shared on social media, one of the surfers fell off his board under the Accademia Bridge but made sure to keep his phone out of the water to film his cohort’s exploits.
Brugnaro wrote that the suspects were “two presumptuous jerks making fun of the city.”
The suspects were arrested later in the day, fined $1,530 each, and expelled from the city. They had also confiscated their expensive electric propeller plates and faced further legal action over damage to their reputation, officials said in a statement.
Venice has strict rules about how to behave in its canals and buildings. Swimming in the canals or eating on the steps of monuments in the streetless city is against the law.
Ecco due imbecilli prepotenti che si fanno beffa della Città… chiedo a tutti di aiutarci a individual per punirli anche se le nostre armi sono davvero spuntate… servono urgemente più poteri ai Sindaci in thema di sicurezza pubblica!
A chi li individual offro una cena! pic.twitter.com/DV2ONO3hUs– Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) August 17, 2022
Two Germans were fined $1,000 by the city in 2019 for making coffee on the famous Rialto Bridge and were ordered never to return to the Venetian capital.
The city will introduce a tourist tax next year to combat excessive tourism and offset the cost of providing services to the community.
Tourists without a hotel room must make a reservation and pay $10.50 to enter the City of Canals. The vast majority of Venice visitors do not stay overnight.
With mail wires