Lack of Respect

It's possible this is an anti-American tourist story, maybe not entirely true. I'm curious as to the source...

And it’s possible it’s totally true. After all Americans are the ones running around Paris putting their little locks on everything Because it’s romantic to celebrate your love by vandalizing someplace.

A quick search engine for vandalism in Venice, shows it to be an ongoing concern over many years. Graffiti, is everywhere, but it seems more endemic in Europe.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-vandalism-naked-swimming/index.html

https://abc17news.com/entertainment/cnn-style/2022/05/27/venice-tourists-swim-nude-in-canals-and-vandalize-church/

An "anti-American" story seems a concept out of Putin's mind. Who would ever make up a story against Americans? And why? A revenge upon pineapple pizza and bottled carbonara sauce?

The suspect of making the pink graffiti on the church is Italian, from the German-speaking area called Alto-Adige. He has claimed he used only water soluble colors and that

"in Venice there are more serious issues than graffiti and nobody complains".

In short, a spoiled, childish idiot with zero empathy.

Carol- the silly padlock thing is is a global trend/phenomenon of reportedly European origin. I certainly saw it in Europe long before I ever saw it in the states. I seriously doubt there’s any evidence that a majority—or even a plurality—of people doing this in Europe are Americans.

of reportedly European origin

Italian origin, it all started with an Italian novel about a roman boy who made up a long-standing tradition to impress his girlfriend.

I agree that the defacing of these buildings is shocking. The (I am assuming drunk) nude swimmers got to swim in sewage……

The ugly American is not a new concept. I do think we are seeing an upswing in entitlement in our society and this is reflected in people focusing on “what I want” vs others. Civility is a bit of a causality.

That said, for every bad tourist there are hundreds of responsible, kind people traveling each day. The respectful ones just don’t hit the headlines.

do they know what goes into the canals?

Nothing much, as the lockdown pics of the canals have showed.

While the "ugly American" may still hold a high rung on the ladder, they have over the last 5 or so years been supplanted by Russian tourists as highest on the ladder for their behaviour but with the invasion, those voices have likely been silenced, for a while. That's my observations, anyway.

I hope they find out how filthy that water is.

Yes, they must have been drunk out of their minds or be suicidal. You can start with leptospirosis, but I doubt that it ends there.

Well, if the swimmers get sick, that is some form of justice I suppose.

Last time I was there, I saw a man step away from his tour group for a moment.
He then squatted down and washed his face in the Grand Canal for quite a few minutes.
I was so shocked I nearly fell overboard from the vaporetto I was traveling on.

Maybe this is a more interesting news piece to the locals if the perpetrators are from another continent.

A few years ago while I was in Vienna, I observed some local people in the tourism industry being particularly rude to some Chinese tourists. I wonder if not speaking a European language is a bigger handicap than being American at this point.

Is a normal behavior for tourists abroad. A person when abroad feel himself authorized to do things that in his country never do (or even think to do). Don't ask me why, but has been studied by phycologists. People abroad believe that everything could be forgiven only because they are simply tourists. So is not a matter from where you come from.
For your fun, here you can find some more examples:
https://www.seguonews.it/video/roma-coppia-fa-il-bagno-in-una-fontana-lei-si-depila-lui-beve-vino
https://www.fanpage.it/roma/la-fontana-di-trevi-come-una-piscina-un-uomo-si-tuffa-e-nuota-video/

@Dario "Who would ever make up a story against Americans? And why? A revenge upon pineapple pizza and bottled carbonara sauce?"
This made me laugh out loud. Those are two particularly egregious crimes, in my mind!

Meanwhile in Paris.....

https://www.thelocal.fr/20220530/video-frenchman-throws-cake-at-mona-lisa-for-the-planet/

"The more I learn of humans, the more I love animals."

"The more I learn of humans, the more I love animals."

Sometime story like this one below restore my faith in humanity; and my love for sloth :)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/05/30/baby-sloth-reunited-with-mom-orig-jc.cnn

Rome’s Spanish steps damaged by tourists for the second time in a month

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/06/10/rome-s-spanish-steps-damaged-by-tourists-for-the-second-time-in-a-month

It's this line that absolutely kills me - "The women hurled the scooter down the 18th century marble landmark, causing an estimated €25,000 worth of damage. The pair, who were filmed by a passerby, were later caught by the police and fined €400 each."

What is wrong with people.

Exactly.

Why anybody want to swim in those canals, naked or clothed, is beyond me.

When we were in Venice 3 years ago we got a frantic call from our teenaged granddaughters who had gone out to dinner in our Cannaregio neighborhood one evening. They said grandma help us who do we call? We can see and smell raw sewage coming out of a building’s pipe and going straight into a canal. I had to tell them about the small amount of ancient plumbing systems still in some neighborhoods. I think they we so disgusted they couldn’t even walk through the little puddles in St. Mark square the next day. Maybe more teens and YA need to know about the old, historic parts of the sewage system.

In the Trastevere area of Rome, it seemed like just about everything had been graffitied. It's probably local handiwork. While traveling, I'm annoyed by anybody who is loud and obnoxious around others. It can be any nationality but on our last trip, a group of loud, foul-mouthed, overly-boisterous, 30-something Californians on a Lake Como ferry made us embarrassed to be Americans. Their sense of entitlement and lack of self-awareness was staggering.

Tourists fined for surfing up Venice's Grand Canal
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-italy-grand-canal-surfers/index.html

I had not seen the article about the surfboarding on the Grand Canal. The lack of respect that people show for priceless treasures like this not only saddens but also angers me. The article does not identify the nationality of the pair, I am truly hoping that they are not from the USA.

Not Venice, but I'm happy(?):( to report that Americans aren't the sole owners of the distasteful behaviour franchise. While in Glasgow in June we were wandering through the Glasgow Necropolis and watched a young couple climbing on top of some of the mausoleums for selfie opportunities. The language they spoke sounded German.

Really too bad isn't it Allen? No matter where they are from, it is just too bad.

The two surfboarders were Australian. I heard an interesting thing on national tv; out of 3000 expulsion orders for bad behaviour in whole Italy every year, 1000 are issued in Venice (so, 3 per day on average).

That said, for every bad tourist there are hundreds of responsible, kind people traveling each day. The respectful ones just don’t hit the
headlines.

@Carol now retired - so many of your responses resonate with me and I think “what she said”.

Edited to show Carol’s quote.

I totally agree Amy. There are so many more tourists that behave in totally respectful ways. They understand that our national treasures need to be preserved and protected for those that follow us.

I'm absolutely disgusted when I hear of incidents like these. As you say, it's a lack of respect and some people seem to think that being on holiday gives them permission to do whatever they feel like (especially when they've been drinking). Unfortunately I think this is a human trait and not specific to one nationality. I've seen similar incidents in the past which involved my fellow Canadians, and I'm always disgusted and disappointed to hear about them.

I don't know how to prevent these except that if any of them are apprehended, the courts should apply a severe sentence and publicize it as a warning to others. Perhaps if they were made to pay a hefty fine and thrown in jail until it's paid would get their attention?

The lack of respect so prevelent in today's world seems (in my opinion) to be directly tied to the "It's all about me" attitude. Just trying to remember when that attitude became so common.

The other kind of reprehensible tourist is the person who brings drugs in their luggage. There are well-known examples. It's so important to remember that US laws are laws in the US, not the world. Some laws in the US are not laws in every state. All the states around the "pot states" pick up travelers coming from those states with illegal substances.

Don't be dumb, folks.

Vloggers like Nicki Positano blame Instagram for a lot of this, it's so damned important to post something that will get lots of hits and make your friends jealous

LOL, nothing new under the sun as far as leaving one's mark:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/adrienne-was-here/475719/

I saw this at the Temple of Poseidon in Greece many years ago:
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/lords-byron-graffiti-in-the-temple-of-sounio-in-greece

And there's the issue of carving up a mountain sacred to some of our First People here in the U.S.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5utzr9LQKroJ:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/the-strange-and-controversial-history-of-mount-rushmore&cd=31&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

It appears that vandalism was a thing well before Instagram?

Tourist smashes two statues in the Vatican
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/vatican-museum-tourist-smashes-statues/index.html

The locks are of European origin. Hence why you don't see them in America. It's also on the local authorities for permitting people to put locks on the bridges and not taking them off.

And every nationality has ugly tourists. Hence the old Asian women that will shove past you in a line to get closer. The Germans the walk four abreast on a trail as to let only one person pass them, etc. In general, people have less manners nowadays.

As Rick has rightly pointed out, graffiti in Europe is seen more as "street art" and is tolerated. I think it's ugly as heck but that's beside the point.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/vatican-museum-tourist-smashes-statues/index.html

roubrat, that is so horrifying. It appears that mental illness may have been involved in that incident. I suppose illness might interfere with the ability to respect objects, people, etc. There are so many issues that we aren't handling very well.

I have to wonder the reasons of why, I can't pack a small inflatable raft and use it in Venice. What possible damage, or irritation could that cause in the back canals? Its always been in the back of my mind to do this. Yet, it seems to be severely restricted: Maybe its the Gondola Guild? :) Or they know people will be stupid.

Venice is not really HOME to anyone, but a very few these days.

And those numbers are shrinking every year even in the state supported public housing areas.

Everyone I've ever talked to that worked in Venice, tell me its too expensive to live there, and they commute in from the surrounding islands, or the mainland.

The Venetian, is on a path to extinction. We've been there four times now, starting in 2004. And every visit, Venice seems to lose a bit of its identity, to what the tourist trade wants to present. In 10 more years, you probably won't be able to tell the city, from the mockup in Las Vegas. The big recent victory was the removal of the mega cruise ships.
Sorry to all the cruise ship persons out there, but they were a bad fit with Venice with some being taller than most of the bell towers, and the dredging these required, was undermining the very foundations of the city.