Fury as Britons strip off in a Roman war memorial fountain
POLICE in Rome are hunting two British tourists filmed stripping off in the fountain of a monument to Italy’s war dead.
Video footage shows the men flexing their muscles and splashing in the water at the Altare della Patria, or ‘Altar of the Fatherland’, wearing only their underwear.
One can later be seen removing underpants as he poses for photographs.
The men – said to be British by Italian media – are speaking English in the footage. A police officer said their antics had ‘gravely offended national feeling and the memory of the fallen to whom the monument is dedicated’.
More than 40,000 have watched the video since it was uploaded to Youtube. Italians vented their anger on social media. One, Ilfredo Perez, said: ‘English sons of bitches, always playing up and attention-seeking.’
Another, writing under the name Giovanni Biancofiore, said the tourists must have been ‘animals who are used to showering in fountains’.
Another remarked: ‘In British terms, it would be like going naked on the Cenotaph.’
The Altare della Patria, built in honour of Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy, holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was built to commemorate those who died in the First World War.
The incident in the monument’s fountain is the latest in a string of events where badly behaved tourists have caused outrage in Italy, and comes just days after two Canadian tourists were fined around £400 for bathing in the Trevi Fountain.