Two American tourists were fined were fined 800 euros ($906) for having entered the Colosseum in Rome at night to drink a beer in the icon of the Roman Empire, Italian police reported on Wednesday, November 17th.
The tourists, as a challenge, set out to drink one last beer in the Roman amphitheater, which dates back to the 1st century. Climbing over the high protective railings, the young Americans, aged 25 and 24, slipped inside.
“During the early hours of Monday morning some people noticed two young men drinking beer in the Colosseum, facing outwards on the second level,” a spokesperson for Rome’s carabinieri police force told CNN. “They alerted a police car nearby, which then stopped the two young men on Via dei Fori Imperiali.”
Once inside the forum, they climbed the ancient steps to the second level of the monument, where the entrance is usually used for tourists who visit every day. They decided to take a seat in one of the arches of the Colosseum, from where they had a privileged view of the city of Rome, to continue drinking beer.
Unfortunately for them, their fun was interrupted when several passers-by noticed them at the top of the Colosseum and alerted the Italian police.
Several officers of the Carabinieri gendarmerie corps were on the scene and arrested the American couple on the main street leading to the city center as they attempted to return home after their night of partying.
The tourists were eventually fined €800 for breaking the law and storming one of Italy’s most visited monuments, with more than seven million tourists a year. A beer overlooking the Eternal City that ended up being quite expensive.
According to CNN, a Russian tourist was fined €20,000 ($22,600) in 2014 for carving the letter “K” into the Colosseum walls. Built almost 2,000 years ago and listed as a World Heritage Site, some 25,000 tourists used to visit the monument every day before the pandemic.
