Italian officials are currently investigating a British tourist who was discovered defacing the Domus of the Vestals, located on the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pompeii. The man was caught red-handed and even tried to carve the date before he was stopped.
Pompeii, the city that was perfectly preserved after and eruption of the Vesuvius vulcano in 79 CE, is a destination many tourists like to add to their bucket list. And if they are indeed able to visit the historical site, making some kind of eternal souvenir to remember it seems reasonable. However, while most are content with a family portrait in front of the ruins, others take things a couple of steps further.
The 37-year-old Brit clearly belongs to the latter category. When he was caught by the staff engraving the initials of himself and his family and the date (7 August) into a wall of the Domus of the Vessels, he initially wasn’t keen on apologising, saying he “wanted to leave a sign of their visit to the site”. It was only afterwards that he seemed willing to present his apologies for the damage he caused to the plaster beside the entrance door of the building, a wall which was frescoed 2,000 years ago.
“British tourist scrawls his initials on wall of Pompeii's World Heritage Site House of the Vestal Virgins fresco – and is ordered to pay for restoration work”
— Hamilton Flart (@lennylaw) August 10, 2024
Look what @SkepticalDDS has done trying to get me in trouble! pic.twitter.com/AW0LgL2Yqk
After the staff on-site interrupted the man, they brought in the local Carabinieri. They, in their turn, reported him to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Torre Annunziata. The case is being labelled as “damage to artistic heritage”, which may carry serious consequences for the man.
In January, the Italian culture ministry approved tougher measures against those damaging its sites of historical and cultural significance. Fines now range from €15,000 to €60,000 euros when such a site is damaged and needs restoring. If the 37-year-old does not agree on paying such a hefty sum, he could even face a prison sentence.
Since the end of the pandemic, Italy is experiencing a soar in international tourist numbers – an increase that unavoidably also leads to more incidents. However, according to Eike Schmidt, director of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, the phenomenon isn’t new; the pandemic just caused a temporary slow-down. “I don’t think it’s worse – I think what we’ve got now is where we stopped in 2019, and it’s come back because the visitors have come back”, he explained in 2022.
