In the wake of a series of incidents involving tourists in Florence, Rome, and Milan, the Italian culture minister has pledged swift sanctions against the culprits.
As the Italian summer winds down, the nation reflects on a tourist season marked by regrettable incidents involving foreign travelers seeking to leave their mark on some of the country's most cherished architectural wonders. The most recent event unfolded in Florence, a city renowned for its culture, where, on August 23, one of its most iconic sites was marred by graffiti.
The Vasari Corridor's colonnade was vandalized overnight. The cryptic inscriptions, devoid of apparent meaning, have been interpreted by some as the name of a German third-division football club, TSV 1860 Munich. The corridor, constructed in 1565, connects several of the city's prominent landmarks across a one-kilometer stretch, linking the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti, via the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchio. Surveillance cameras identified two tourists from a German group as the culprits.
The incident in Florence follows a similar act in Milan on the night of August 7. These "art vandals," as the Italian press dubs them, defaced the upper section of the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery. This 19th-century architectural gem, symbolizing Italian Unification, graces Piazza del Duomo, home to the city's iconic Gothic cathedral. Photo by Diomidis Spinellis, Wikimedia commons.