For the past 300 years, the Spanish staircase in Rome has been inherited by artists, poets and enthusiasts. They provide a radical background for fashion shows and self-portraits, and have appeared in dozens of films, including the 1953 “Roman Holiday” starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
And last week, after tourists pushed down the electric scooter, they again drew an international headline, costing € 25,000 (about $ 27,000).
Two American tourists, 29 and 28 years old, male and female, were stopped by police after throwing a scooter on the Spanish stairs at around 2:45 am on June 3, according to a local police news release. I did. The pair is unnamed.
Widely distributed videos show a woman pushing her scooter down the stairs while a handful of people are watching. The man who accompanied her was also seen dragging her scooter down the stairs.
According to the release, each pair was fined € 400 (about $ 430). A more formal complaint was filed for damaging the monument because the woman appeared to have deliberately pushed the scooter down the stairs.Or Crime is punished Up to 1 year imprisonment or a fine of at least 2,000 euros.
Franco Pasqualetti, a spokesman for the Roman City Council, said the two tourists were “totally drunk” on the night of the incident and were locked out of the scene for six months after causing the damage.
One of Rome’s most popular tourist attractions, the staircase was built in the 1720s and connects Piazza di Spagna and Piazza Trinita dei Monti. In 2016, the Roman flagship store undertook a 10-month restoration of € 1.5 million undertaken by Italian luxury brand Bvlgari at the foot of the stairs.
According to Roman police, the scooter incident occurred weeks after a Saudi man drove a Maserati sports car down the stairs, damaging at least two cars.
Pasqualetti said the case was an accident, not a vandalism. “I noticed that instead of turning right, I turned left and was on the stairs. At that point, I didn’t have time to brake and go down the stairs,” he said.
Two years after Italy became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, many tourists returned to Rome.
Italian officials recently announced that travelers to Italy no longer need to show evidence of vaccination, recent recovery, or negative tests.
“I think the conditions are unlimited during the summer,” said Andrea Costa, director of health at the time.
People working in the city’s most iconic places told the New York Times that “no one seems to be afraid of Covid anymore” when travelers refill the streets in May and at least one hotelier told the New York Times. rice field.