You know how a bloke recently got fed to the lions for allegedly carving some dumb shit into the Colosseum in Rome? Well, a teenage girl was recently filmed allegedly vandalising the 2000-year-old World Heritage Site.
The 17-year-old Swiss tourist was caught on camera allegedly carving the letter “N” into the Roman structure on Friday, according to local media outlet Adnkronos.
The video, which was shared to Twitter by Italian news agency ANSA, shows the young girl appearing to use an object to etch some bullshit into the Colosseum. As soon as the alleged Michelangelo cosplay stops, folks around her start clapping.
Tour guide David Battaglino was the bloke who filmed the alleged incident. He told local Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he was just doing his thing, showing folks the Colosseum’s rugged beauty, when someone alerted him to the teenager’s tomfoolery.
He said he started filming the girl mid-etch, while he was still giving his tour group a fun little history lesson. I don’t throw this term around lightly, but that’s a Renaissance man if I’ve ever seen one.
“After a few seconds my group applauded me. To her, in English, I said, ‘Do you want applause?’ The young girl understood that she had ended up in the crosshairs of those who protect art and turned away to go toward her family,” he said.
I am in absolute tears over “the crosshairs of those who protect art”. Is this tour guide a direct descendent of the Italian poet and writer Dante Alighieri? Because he truly has a stunning way with words. I am enraptured by his musings.
But alas, I digress. Battaglino told La Repubblica that when he informed the teenager’s parents about her v. illegal offence, and that he’d dobbed her in to his supervisor, they replied: “She’s just a little girl, she wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
You simply have to laugh at this entire family, don’t you? They are the IDGAF War’s strongest veterans. There’s not a fuck to be seen.
According to La Repubblica, the family was taken to a police station in Rome’s Piazza Venezia for questioning. The teenager could cop a fine of up to €15,000 (AUD$24,750) or face two to five years in prison, the publication reported.
We shouldn’t be defacing historic monuments full stop, but the teenager’s actions are deeply bamboozling when you remember a bloke got dragged to hell and back less than a month ago after he allegedly used a key to carve “Ivan + Hayley 23” into the Colosseum.
He claimed he didn’t know how old the Colosseum was, which, sadly, has got to be one of the funniest excuses ever. I’m not sure how much the carabinieri liked that pearler, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was not bene.
Image credit: Twitter / @Agenzia_Ansa & NBC / The Office
