Ever since Ozymandias, people have liked to leave a mark on the world.
The Romans were no different, leaving ruins of their own for future civilisations to feast on.
In a meta display of territory marking, some tourists like to graffiti Roman ruins – an offence that they can be fined a sh*t load for.
A 32-year-old man from Ireland found this out the hard way last year, when he was caught using a metal point to carve his initials into a pillar on the first level. A 14-year-old German girl was also caught doing the same thing.
Oh, and, in 2014, a Russian tourist was hit with a €20,000 (AU $31,219) fine for – you guessed it – carving an initial into the Colosseum walls.
Two American tourists recently found themselves added to the list of badly behaved tourists in Rome, but for a different reason. They broke into the Colosseum after dark to drink beer.
The two men had climbed over tall railings and walked up the ancient steps to level two of the Colusseum before sipping a beer under the famous arches. Passersby noticed the (we imagine) cute scene and called the police.
Nearby cops came by and found the two men walking back to the city, and slapped them with an €800 (AU $1,250) fine.
There was no reported damage to the landmark.
According to The Guardian, “Such transgressions were more frequent before the coronavirus pandemic, when the Colosseum, completed under Emperor Titus in AD80, would welcome about 6 million visitors a year.”
Here’s hoping the world of travel gets back to normal soon – even if it does mean a few more fines are probably going to be doled out.