Rise in Foreign Tourists Contributes to Increased Litter at Italy’s Cherished Historic Monuments

Yet another incident of idiotic international tourists in Italy behaving badly has just surfaced, this time involving Florence’s 460-year-old Vasari Corridor. Two German tourists, aged 20 and 21, are allegedly responsible for writing graffiti about a Munich soccer team on its walls in the early morning hours of August 23.

Italy’s Culture Ministry said it would cost roughly €10,000 (US$10,800) to repair the damage caused by this act of vandalism and that the work would need to be carried out under 24-hour armed guard.

“The Carabinieri of the Operations Unit of the Florence and of the Uffizi Carabinieri Station, analyzing video surveillance footage, managed to identify two individuals who, at 5:20 this morning, damaged the very important artistic site,” the Florentine Carabinieri said in a statement to CNN.

The alleged perpetrators are part of a group of 11 students staying in an Airbnb in the city’s center, according to the Florence arm of Italy’s Carabinieri military police. The Carabinieri said it had monitored the pair of suspects after they spray-painting on the Vasari Corridor and a raid on their Airbnb was carried out under a search warrant Thursday.

There, officers found two cans of black spray paint and clothing items stained with the same paint-stain. Authorities are now comparing fingerprints taken from the spray-paint cans to those of the 11 students staying on the property, all of whom were questioned in the case.

Built by Renaissance painter and architect Giorgio Vasari in 1565, the Vasari Corridor constitutes an elevated, enclosed passageway in the ancient heart of this long-celebrated city. One kilometer long, it runs across rooftops, through the basilica of Santa Felicita, alongside the River Arno and across the ancient Ponte Vecchio footbridge.

This spectacular architectural element was originally constructed to provide a secret passageway for the Medici family, rulers of Florence, from their private residences in the Boboli Gardens to the then-seat of governmental power, in which now resides the famous Uffizi Gallery.

For some reason, it seems like Italy has lately been attracting the absolute lowest class of tourists. This is far from the first time that travelers hailing from abroad have damaged, defaced or otherwise desecrated priceless, irreplaceable pieces of Italian (and global) cultural heritage.

Whether these frequent occurrences of vandalism in Italy are due to this summer’s massive heatwave in Southern Europe frying everyone’s brains, today’s tourists are truly suffering from an over-inflated sense of entitlement or the global population has just recently become almost completely uncultured is anyone’s guess.

Whatever the reason, 2023 has certainly seen a string of bizarre episodes involving foreign tourists treating Italy’s world-renowned monuments and ancient pieces of architecture like the restroom stalls at their local gas stations.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the idiotic incidents seen in Italy this year thus far.

This month, a 19-year-old French tourist was caught carving a heart and initials into the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa.
In early August, a group of German tourists toppled at 150 year-old statue at a Northern Italian villa while trying to take social media photos, smashing it to pieces in the process.
In July, a woman climbed out onto the Travertine stone of the Trevi Fountain to fill up her water bottle from the water streaming off the statues of Rome’s iconic 18th-century landmark.
In July, a Swiss tourist was filmed carving her initials into the stone of Rome’s ancient amphitheater, the nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum.
In June, a 27-year-old British tourist also was caught carving his and his girlfriend’s initials onto the walls of this same rare remnant of the ancient Western world. Colosseum. According to Italian news agency ANSA, it was already the fourth time that such graffiti etched into the monument was reported this year.
In January, a U.S. tourist drove their vehicle across Florence’s Ponte Vecchio a world-famous, 98-foot-long, enclosed footbridge of Medieval-era construction and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
…and the list goes on.