Tourists in hot water after being filmed undressing in Italian war memorial fountain
ITALIANS have reacted with indignation after two tourists stripped down to their underwear and cavorted in a fountain in Rome beneath a monument that commemorates the dead of the First World War.
One of the young men pulled down his underpants in a scene that was filmed by a passer-by. As the capital sweats through the dog days of August, it is not uncommon for international visitors to try to cool off in the city’s many Baroque and Renaissance fountains, despite signs warning that it is prohibited.
But, the latest episode provoked particular anger because the fountain that the two men clambered into is part of the Altar of the Fatherland, a giant white stone monument in the centre of Rome that includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and an eternal flame.
“Behaving like this shows stupidity and ignorance and a lack of respect for the history of Rome and of Italy,” said Luca Bergamo, the deputy mayor of Rome. Police said they were trying to identify and locate the two men, who reportedly spoke English.
They waded into the water of the fountain as the temperature hit 95F (35C). Rome has long had to put up with the louche behaviour of some tourists, who, as well as jumping into fountains, sometimes urinate in the streets and carve their initials on the 2,000-year-old walls of the Colosseum.
Police said the two men had “gravely offended national sentiment and the memory of the fallen.”
They added that they are determined to locate and prosecute the tourists for their “illegal and offensive behaviour”.
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