A fellow traveler was jokingly pushed into Trevi Fountain several years ago. They now want to go to Italy, but they never paid the big fine, Will that show up on his passport at airport check-in here in the U.S. or when he arrives in Italy? In other words, would they turn him away?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23642 posts
Probably not. Things like traffic fines and other minor offenses do not attach to immigration. I would not worry about if it was a long time ago.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
No chance. He can travel with no worries.
You have to be a terrorist to be in that type of database.
Besides getting inside the Trevi fountain seems to be ok these days. Apparently now you can even throw black dye in the water
Posted by
US
605 posts
Roberto, I read about the Trevi Fountain, and other similar acts against monuments. art, etc. Do you know if Italy has any special charges they can levy against any so-called “vandal” given the historic and cultural value of Italy's monuments, structures, etc.? In my opinion these are more than acts of vandalism.
Posted by
US
605 posts
JR, Bottom line is your friend should have paid that fine. Then gotten reimbursed by the “joker” who pushed him or her in. Just sayin'.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
Do you know if Italy has any special charges they can levy against any
so-called “vandal”
Believe it or not those acts, including throwing paint at Palazzo Vecchio in Florence last March (with the "activists" tackled by the Mayor himself who happened to be there on Piazza Signoria during an interview and hailed as a Super hero for his action ) encounter the approval of a lot of politicians and journalists in certain political circles.
Regarding the punishment for those acts, the Italian Criminal Code provides that the act of defacing a monument of historical significance is punished with a minimum fine of €1000 (and up to €3000) and an imprisonment term ranging from 3 months to one year (basically a misdemeanor).
However if you are a first time offender, when the punishment is less than 2 years, the Italian Code of Penal Procedure provides that the sentence be suspended (so the convicted person does not actually go to prison) and if the convicted person does not commit other crimes for the next 5 years the crime is expunged from the criminal record. Therefore those kids will not serve any time in jail.
Posted by
US
605 posts
Thank you Roberto. What a shame.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
Robe' le aggravanti e l'associazione
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16133 posts
Last month the government enacted a new measure to make the punishment more severe (up to 6 years in prison and 10,000 to 60,000 euro in fines), but I don't know if the law is already approved.
It's ironic that these vandals think they care about the environment but their action yesterday will cause the waste of 300,000 liters of water which will need to be dumped, so the equivalent of 200,000 large 1.5 liter bottles of water, in addition to the cost necessary to clean up the fountain marble.