Just weeks after a British tourist was fined for carving her name into the walls of the Colosseum, a teenage girl has been accused of doing the same.
The 17-year-old girl from Switzerland was visiting Rome with her family when she was found to have carved the letter 'N' into a brick pillar of the nearly 2,000-year-old amphitheatre.
17-year-old girl filmed writing on the Colosseum
Italian tour guide David Battaglino filmed the illegal act last Friday and quickly alerted security.
"This is the first time I have filmed vandalism at the Colosseum but in the past six years I have witnessed dozens of cases," he told Italy's Repubblica Roma . "They even spat at me when I warned them."
After filming, Battaglino told the girl's parents that what their daughter had done was illegal, but the girl's parents chased him away with "an unpleasant gesture".
When confronted, the girl's parents said: "She is just a child, she did nothing wrong."
Local media reported that the girl and her parents were then taken to police headquarters in Piazza Venezia, Rome for questioning. Italian police have now opened an investigation into the allegations.
Under Italian law, those who commit graffiti on the Colosseum can be fined $16,850 or imprisoned for two to five years.
The clip then went viral, leaving many people confused by the lack of respect for historical sites.
A British tourist shocked the world last month with a similar act. Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old fitness trainer living in Bristol, England, claimed he had no idea how ancient the 80AD marker was until he wrote it on the wall of the Colosseum. Specifically, he used a key to carve "Ivan + Hayley 23" into the 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site and was caught on video.
Inside the 2,000-year-old Roman Colosseum
Mr. Dimitrov confessed when arrested: It is shameful and regrettable to only now know about the antiquity of the monument.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano described the tourists' actions as "an insult to all people around the world who appreciate the value of archaeology, monuments and history".
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