Topless tourist enrages locals with dip in 15th century fountain in Florence
The incident is the latest in a stream of tourists behaving badly in Italy.
An English-speaking tourist has sparked outrage after swimming topless in a fountain in Florence and inviting her friends to join her.
The unnamed blonde woman was caught taking a dip at the Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence wearing nothing but a pair of black pants during a warm night in the Italian city.
She even asked other people sitting on the edge of the basin if they wished to join her for a dip, but none of them obliged.
The tourist was slammed on social media for her ‘mother nature style’ swim, with one quipping that ‘shame should come back into fashion’.
It comes just a few days after another female tourist angered locals in Florence by climbing on top of a priceless statue of the ancient god Bacchus and simulating a sex act with the famous artwork.
Footage circulated online of the female tourist kissing the bronze Bacchus statue before standing in front of it while grinding her rear against the sculpture as a friend took photos.
A second woman, in black shorts and a white t-shirt, was later also pictured imitating a sex act in front of the statue.
The recent spate of incidents has prompted a wave of criticism of the ‘overtourism’ of certain areas, with officials being encouraged to adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards unruly holidaymakers.
Marco Passeri, a former councillor for Florence, asked: ‘Are we sure we need this kind of tourists in Florence?’
Police chief Antonella Ranaldi said: ‘Tourists are welcome, but there must be respect for our monuments, whether they are originals or copies. Also because I doubt that this lady, who is to blame, knows the difference.’
Patrizia Asproni, from cultural heritage organisation Confcultura, urged the city to adopt a ‘Singapore model’ which would issue high fines and tight controls and a zero tolerance to unruly behaviour.
‘Florence is a city that does not make visitors respect it,’ said Patricia. ‘These continuous manifestations of rudeness and incivility occur because everyone feels entitled to do what they want with impunity.’
A number of similar ‘overtourism’ incidents have caused outrage in Italy in recent months, which has prompted a harsh crackdown from authorities.
Last month, a Kazakh tourist was caught red-handed carving his name into an ancient pillar in a recently excavated part of Pompeii.
The unnamed vandal was stopped while he was engraving ‘Ali’ on light plaster in the House of the Ceii, an ancient villa that probably belonged to the magistrate Lucius Ceius Secundus.
Italian authorities said that the man will be made to pay for restoration work to be carried out on the wall to remove the graffiti after he was reported to the police.
In June, two tourists from Germany were detained for covering a historical landmark in Florence with football graffiti.
The men, believed to be football ultras, reportedly used black spray paint to write ‘DKS 1860’ on the 460-year-old columns of Florence’s iconic Vasari Corridor.
And in a now-famous shocking incident, a Bulgarian-born Bristol-based fitness instructor was filmed smiling as he vandalised the wall of the Colosseum.
Ivan Dimitrov, 27, was on holiday in Rome with girlfriend Hayley Bracey, 33, when he was caught carving the words ‘Ivan and Hayley 23’ into the brickwork with a set of keys and reprimanded by the city’s authorities.
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