Italy has faced another incident of foreign tourist vandalism, this time involving Florence’s 460-year-old Vasari Corridor, a colonnaded passageway between the Uffizi and the Boboli Gardens and the Pitti Palace.
Italy’s Culture Ministry said it would cost about €10 000 (R201 400) to repair the damage and that the repair would need to be carried out under 14-hour armed guard, reported travelpulse.com.
According to the Florence arm of Italy’s Carabinieri military police, the alleged perpetrators were part of a group of 11 foreign students visiting the city centre. The Carabinieri found footage of two individuals spray-painting football-related graffiti on the monument last week.
This incident followed several others earlier this year:
- Earlier in August, a 19-year-old French tourist was caught carving a heart and initials into the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa.
- In early August, a group of German tourists toppled a 150-year-old statue at a northern Italian villa while trying to take social media photos, smashing it to pieces.
- In July, a woman traversed the pool and then climbed up the Travertine stone of the Trevi Fountain to fill up her water bottle from the water spout among the statues of Rome’s iconic 18th-century landmark.
- In July, a Swiss tourist was filmed carving her initials into the stone of Rome’s ancient amphitheatre, the nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum.
- In June, a 27-year-old British tourist was caught carving his and his girlfriend’s initials onto the walls of the Colosseum.
- In January, a US tourist drove their vehicle across Florence's Ponte Vecchio, a world-famous, 98-foot-long, enclosed footbridge of Medieval-era construction and a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The Italian authorities have passed legislation and will fine vandals of cultural, historic or artistic monuments anywhere between €10 000 (R201 400) and €60 000 (R1,2 million). Additionally criminal charges may also be levied.
