Behavior reminder: Tourist scratches wall in Colosseum in Rome

Why didn’t the person who was filming yelled at them to stop. I would have, but I have a big, Brooklyn mouth.

I have very little sympathy for these nut jobs. There should be a month (or more) in jail and a $10,000 fine. No plea deals or anything. You're screwed. Same with those defacing art work or blocking traffic. Get some big beefy guys and throw their behinds out. Or as Grandpa would say, "Give 'em the bum's rush."

Barbara, I agree, but physical measures should also be an option.

Also, they should be restricted from visiting that country in future.

Era sempre cosi. St. Zeno in Verona has the oldest graffiti vandalism I've ever seen, so old one can't even blame the print media: https://www.ikonographia.com/middle-ages-vandals/

Infuriating.

Just amazes me. It would not even cross my mind to leave graffiti anywhere, much less a historical monument. Add to that the people who push things over or rip things up in national parks.

With the number people who probably were there there when this crime occurred, I hope they are identified and prosecuted!

That kid looks pretty European to me, the color of his shirt and pants and the print. And he's in his 20s.

Edit: Also just noticed that his girlfriend has a dog on a leash. It's more likely than not that he is Italian, maybe drove in from elsewhere in Europe ....

I don't think there's a lot of worry about the mostly older, mostly North American people on the Rick Steve's forum considering doing the same ....

Add to that the people who push things over or rip things up in
national parks.

I'm with you here Pete! Ridiculous people carving in trees, knocking over boulders, etc. They have no sense of how insignificant they are in relation to the majesty of nature.

It's interesting to me that wilderness vandalism basically disappears once you are more than 3 mi or more than 1000 vertical feet up away from the trailhead. Almost nobody who puts in an effort to get into the backcountry then has a mindset where they would damage something. When they catch people vandalizing national parks, they should make them backpack 50 mi in 4 days. It would change how they think about things.

Hank--I love that! Backcountry wilderness experience 50 mile penalty!

Era sempre cosi. St. Zeno in Verona has the oldest graffiti vandalism
I've ever seen, so old one can't even blame the print media:
https://www.ikonographia.com/middle-ages-vandals/

I know it's a serious topic and I hope that guy is caught and punished, but there are a lot of interesting articles out there that discuss how important graffiti is from an archaeological angle to uncover everyday life in in ancient times. Pompeii is a great example and some of the graffiti scrawled into the walls near the brothel 2000 years ago shows that even then, men could have the maturity level of a teenage boy with such writings as "Restituta, take off your tunic, please, and show us your hairy privates".

Turns out our hero and his lady are Brits. Doggie apparently also British, although a rental can't be ruled out.

Don't they have their own historic artifacts to deface right at home? ;). I mean some of them are on permanent loan from Ancient Rome even ....

Let's blame the dog, it is a western, continental European. More likely than not that its ancestors have been pissing on roman ruins for centuries.

I was a little surprised at the wording of this post. Perhaps it is a cultural difference, but it seems to me a bit pointless to be reminding a group of strangers who are on a travel forum how to behave, as if they didn't know.

A local couple with vaguely similar appearances, and the names Ivan and Hayley are being harassed by the merciless social media mob, because people have mistaken them for the perpetrators. Collateral damage.

He isn't British. He is a Bulgarian called Ivan Dimitrov ('beautiful
British name'), who lives in Britain.

Ahh, I see. The article I read said from England, but apparently not in the primordial sense.

Following up, there is an interesting (if infuriating) article on CNN today Tourists bad behavior that discusses how the increase in stupidity and vandalism is a return to pre-covid era trends. But more interestingly, down the article, it talks about how people specifically view Italy as a place where there are no rules. To the extent of pointing out how certain films promote a sense of permissible bad behavior.

I dont know how other people feel, but I always feel a bit of relief when the fools turn out not to be Americans, and shame when they are.

Narcissism. Its one thing to pose for Insta with a GoPro, its another thing to deliberately mark your name like this idiot.
Back in '87 during a walk around York's wall, the guide stopped our troupe and remarked on his disgust that drunken Canadian soldiers had defaced some local historical monument with similar name-etching. That incident dated from '45.

Btw, why are you all talking about that idiot....when you should be talking about me?!
I am done. the groans

From the CNN article that Stan provided a link to;

So many tourists have said to me over the years, ‘In Italy there are
no rules.’ But they are mistaken. Of course there are rules, but as
someone who lives here and who experiences the daily struggle of
bureaucratic, economic and institutional instability can tell you:
sadly there often aren’t consequences for those who don’t follow the
rules.”

So true. It's still not an excuse for bad behaviour but it doesn't help the situation when there's too much chaos in politics and bureaucracy to solve a problem.

I would have yelled "Stop Vandal. You're 1500 years too late."

So true. It's still not an excuse for bad behaviour but it doesn't help the situation when there's too much chaos in politics and bureaucracy to solve a problem.

In other words, raping the girl was wrong but her skirt was actually too short (by anglo-saxon standards, the only standards about rules and skirts, of course)

See, there are worse things in Italy than inadvertently driving into a ZTL.

If the punishment for this thoughtless clod would fit the crime, he’d have graffiti scratched into his body with a dull, rusty key, The scars a few years later would serve as mementos from his visit to Rome.

Or maybe let him loose into the Colosseum as a modern gladiator, fending off passengers from a couple cruise ships that just docked in Civitavecchia for the day.

A very timely read about naughty tourists - specifically in Italy. Take Valium before you read it. It's infuriating, yet educational.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/italy-tourists-bad-behavior/index.html

Thank you Alesa, interesting reading. Unless you have blood pressure issues, yeah?
I am done. the idiots

No one on this forum needs a behavior reminder, lol, none of us would ever behave this way. This vandalism is so totally outrageous, makes my blood boil.