Travel

American Tourist Fined for Hurling E-Scooter Down Spanish Steps in Rome

THEY’RE BACK

The 28-year-old woman and her male companion caused more than $30,000 in damage to the UNESCO heritage monument.

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Guglielmo Mangiapane/Rome

Police in the Italian capital have fined a 28-year-old American woman and her 29-year-old companion after they damaged the 18th-century Spanish Steps in central Rome with e-scooters. The male was filmed riding his scooter down the ancient staircase and the American woman was filmed throwing her scooter to try to keep up with him. The two are banned from ever returning to the Spanish Steps, which were restored in 2015. The tourists-behaving-badly incident comes two weeks after a man drove a rented Maserati down the famous steps, clipping a chunk of marble under the car fender. He was also fined and banned from returning to the site. The Spanish Steps are one of the most guarded tourist sites in Rome, where police have prohibited people from sitting on them when the city made it illegal in 2018.

Read it at Guardian

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