A TikToker attempted to go viral by saying she had sneaked onto a train while on vacation in Europe, and complaining that she was caught out and handed a fine. She did gain millions of views, but the response wasn't positive.
Why can't tourists simply stop defacing Rome's Colosseum?
21.07.2023 - 13:15 / insider.com
If you feel like you keep seeing stories about travelers brazenly leaving their mark on Italy's Colosseum, you're not imagining things.
In June, a tourist — later identified as 27-year-old Ivan Dimitrov, a fitness instructor living in Bristol, England — sparked outrage after he was caught on video using a key to etch "Ivan+Haley 23" into the almost 2,000-year-old structure in Rome. Italians were understandably furious, and the story ended up making international headlines.
The worldwide attention was thanks to the video being uploaded to YouTube ("Asshole tourist carves name in Colosseum in Rome 6-23-23" currently has almost 300,000 views) and the subsequent publication of Dimitrov's apology letter (he says he didn't realize it was that old).
In recent weeks, there have been a spate of other defacement stories. On July 15, the Italian news agency ANSA tweeted a video that appeared to show a young girl, whose face was blurred, carving the letter "N" into a wall on the historic structure. The girl, who hasn't been identified by name but is said to be a Swiss teenager traveling with her parents, was filmed by a tour guide.
Just a day later, ANSA reported a third case of vandalism; sources told ANSA that a 17-year-old German student accompanied by a teacher was caught carving into a wall on the structure's ground floor.
People carving things into the Colosseum and other ancient sites isn't a new phenomenon. Photos show that it's unfortunately quite common, and has been for years. The resurgence of travelers after COVID restrictions lifted doesn't seem to be helping things either, as tourist hotspots are more crowded than ever. But The New York Times reports that a number of vandalism incidents in 2020 finally led the Italian government to impose bigger penalties for those caught defacing cultural landmarks.
The mention of hefty fines and potential jail time is prominent in the news coverage of the latest incidents — ANSA reported in June that Dimitrov could face up to $16,000 in fines and five years in prison, and the news agency's latest report on Monday said that the Rome public prosecutor's office is expected to request an indictment.
It seems clear that ANSA and other Italian media are underscoring the very real possibility of jail time and monetary penalties as a deterrent when publicizing the defacements: Don't you try this next, or we'll get you too!
But it's obviously not helping much, given that two teens followed suit in defacing the structure only weeks after Dimitrov made headlines. Perhaps the teens, like Dimitrov, will claim they were unaware of how ancient and important the site was — but there's also the distinct possibility that they wanted to be caught on video, and to go viral, as
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