Two American tourists have been fined after breaking into the Colosseum, reportedly to experience the pleasure of having a beer inside the ancient Roman amphitheatre.
The pair, aged 24 and 25, climbed on to the second tier of the monument in the early hours of Monday morning. They were spotted at about 5.30am, chatting over their drinks, by a passerby who alerted police. It is unclear how they managed to enter the monument, which closes to the public at 4.30pm.
The intruders told police they were “just having a beer”, the Italian press reported, but officers fined them €800 (£670) for illegally entering the archaeological site. No damage was caused.
Italy gets its fair share of tourists behaving badly, with the Colosseum often a target for those who want to leave their mark. Defacing the 2,000-year-old structure is strictly forbidden, an instruction reinforced by the signs around the monument, and punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of about €2,000. But not every tourist takes note.
Credit: theguardian.com
