Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. condemned a tourist filmed scratching his name on a wall at the former site of the Colosseum in Rome.
In a video uploaded, a man wearing a backpack was seen using a set of keys to carve the words “Ivan + Hayley 23”. The video was uploaded to Youtube channel @rytz5873 on June 24 with the title “Asshole tourist carves name in Colosseum in Rome 6-23-23”. It’s unclear who shot the footage, but a voice can be heard saying, “‘Are you fucking serious, man? “If caught, the man faces a fine of up to 15,000 euros or a prison sentence.
Sangiuliano wrote on Twitter: “I consider it very serious, undignified and a sign of great incivility when a tourist defaces one of the most famous places in the world, the Colosseum, by engraving the name of his fiancée. I hope that whoever did this will be identified and punished in accordance with our laws.
Alfonsina Russo, the director of the 2,000-year-old site, said The temperature that the offender had vandalized a wall built around 1840 during a restoration effort, rather than the original stonework, but insisted the episode was no less serious. He added that the carabinieri (Italian police) are trying to find the individual.
The vandalism incident is the latest in a string of damage to the ancient Roman amphitheater; in 2014, a Russian tourist was fined €20,000 for carving the letter “K” into a section of masonry. In 2018, then-Minister of Culture Alberto Bonisoli announced plans to double the number of security cameras at the site to 100; Colosseum officials did not respond to a request for comment on the plans. In 2018, 7.4 million people visited the Colosseum.
