Two California women break away from tour group to scratch their
initials into ancient amphitheatre, where defacing walls is strictly
forbidden. Tourists at the Colosseum, Rome. Signs in English and Italian at the
site tell visitors not to deface the walls.
Tourists are once again getting into trouble in Italy, with two American women caught carving their names into Rome’s Colosseum.
The Californians, aged 21 and 25, snuck away from their tour group on
Saturday and began scratching their initials into the amphitheatre with
a coin. They managed a “J” and an “N” around 8cm high, before taking a
selfie with their handiwork.
Police were quick to catch the two Americans and report them for
damaging the ancient site. The women may now go in front of a judge and
face a penalty.
Defacing the walls is strictly forbidden, as pointed out on signs in
both English and Italian. But some visitors think little of breaking the
rules as they view the crumbling monument differently from other top
sites such as the Vatican, said a spokesman for the Special
Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome.
“There’s a difference in perception. Museums are treated like
churches, sacred places where there are things of great value. Whereas
the Colosseum is an incomplete building which has already been robbed,”
the spokesman said.
The Colosseum fell into disrepair after its heyday of hosting 73,000
spectators, watching gladiator fights to the death, and was at one point
quarried for its stone. While the amphitheatre was completed in AD80,
the section defaced on Saturday dates to the 1800s when the pope
initiated restoration work.
“It’s not an original wall but it’s nevertheless antique,” the spokesman said.
Antonio Camertoni, impersonating a Roman centurion outside the
Colosseum, agreed the tourists were wrong to carve into the stone. “It’s
a piece of cultural heritage. They don’t do it at home, but they do it
here,” he said, musing that perhaps the site should be closed to
tourists altogether.
But the two unruly tourists are an incredibly small minority of
around six million people who visit the Colosseum and Roman Forum each
year. Johnny Hansen, on holiday from Denmark, said he certainly didn’t
intend to leave his mark on the site. “Everyone should have respect for
it. They should be fined to make an example. It’s heritage, so you must
protect it,” he said.
The sheer number of visitors to the Colosseum, coupled with staffing
cuts, makes it increasingly challenging to catch tourists behaving
badly. Security was upped at the Colosseum and other sites last month,
following threats against Rome by Islamic State, but the focus is on
stopping terrorists not rule-breaking tourists.
Police vehicles parked by the amphitheatre and metal detectors at the
entrance reflect the new security measures, while inside Colosseum
staff continue trying to keep order among the visitors.
“The security is not inadequate from the point of view of terrorism,
but the shortage of personnel and the great mass of tourists is a
problem, also for other sites,” the Superintendency said.
The Californians’ lawbreaking comes little over three months after a
Russian tourist was caught carving a 25cm letter into the Colosseum. The
42-year-old was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and a
€20,000 fine, although owing to a lack of funds he has not paid the
penalty.
The Russian was the fifth person to be stopped for defacing the
ancient monument last year, with others hailing from Australia, Brazil
and Canada.
