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More tourists have discovered designs on parts of the Roman Colosseum, weeks after a man carved their initials
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More tourists have discovered designs on parts of the Roman Colosseum, weeks after a man carved their initials

(CNN) — Two other tourists were apparently discovered sketching on the Roman Colosseum, following a similar incident in June.

On Friday, a tour guide spotted a 17-year-old Swiss woman who was apparently carving her initials on a wall of the building, a spokesperson for the local military police, the Carabinieri of the Province of Rome, told CNN. The guide called local security, who then alerted the carabinieri.

The next day, a 17-year-old German student was caught doing something similar. This time, a security guard observed the teenager and reported him to the carabinieri.

The two young men could face a fine of up to 15,000 euros ($16,850) and up to five years in prison.

It’s the same sentence the 27-year-old British tourist who was filmed apparently carving his name on the wall of the Roman Colosseum last month can receive.

The man, Ivan Dimitrov, sent a letter of apology to the local prosecutor’s office, according to his defense attorney.

“I confess with the deepest shame that it was only after what unfortunately happened that I discovered the age of the monument,” he wrote in his letter to the prosecutor, said his lawyer, Alexandro Maria Tirelli, to CNN.

Dimitrov is said to have engraved “Ivan + Hayley 23”, his name and that of his girlfriend, on the wall of the Colosseum.

Following the video’s release, Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano called in a tweet for the author to be “punished according to our laws”.

“I consider it very serious, unworthy and a sign of great rudeness for a tourist to ruin one of the most famous places in the world, a historical heritage like the Colosseum, to engrave the name of his fiancée,” he said. he declared.

A similar incident also happened in 2020, when security staff saw an Irish tourist carving his initials into the old structure and reported it to the police.