What Were They Thinking? Tourists Arrested for Defacing Rome's Colosseum
Defacing the Colosseum is strictly forbidden. (Photo: Megan Allen/Flickr)
The saying goes, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ However, that saying doesn’t apply to every situation, such as vandalizing the historic Roman Colosseum.
Two tourists from California are accused of carving their initials into a section of the wall of Colosseum, a World Heritage site, on Saturday, March 7, posing afterward to take a selfie with their artwork.
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The two women, aged 21 and 25 and whose names have yet to be released, reportedly snuck away from their tour group and used a coin to carve the letters J and N, both about 3-inches high, onto one of the bricks in the wall. La Repubblica tweeted a photo of the alleged vandalism.
Nearby tourists caught sight of and reported the mischief. Police reportedly arrested the two women, and they are charged with “aggravated damage on a building of historical and artistic interest.”
According to reports, the women allegedly vandalized a section of the wall from the 1800s that was part of restoration work to the Colosseum.
The two women will face trial in Italy for aggravated damage to a monument.
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Defacing the walls is strictly forbidden, and signs — both in English and Italian — are posted around the site to ensure tourists are aware of the rules. Yet still, this is not the first such incident of vandalism in the Colosseum.
This past November, a Russian tourist was charged for carving his initials into the Colosseum. The man received a four-month suspended sentence and a fine of €20,000, which is about $18,500.
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