Tourist is caught carving initials into 2,000-year-old home at Pompeii

(CNN) — Its perfectly preserved streets and still-standing houses provide a unique opportunity to see how people lived nearly 2,000 years ago. A visit to the ancient city of Pompeii, frozen in time when it was covered by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, provides memories of a lifetime.

But memories weren’t enough for one British tourist, who was caught this week engraving the initials of himself and his family into one of the city’s 2,000-year-old houses.

The 37-year-old, who has yet to be named, is said to have made five engravings – the initials of his family and the date, August 7 – with a blunt object on the wall of the House of the Vestal Virgins.

Photos of the damage show the letters scratched in the plaster beside the entrance door, which was frescoed red nearly 2,000 years ago.

The letters “JW LMW MW” high on the wall and “MYLAW 07/08/24” further down are clearly visible.

Staff at the site noticed and called the police. According to Italian news agency ANSA, the man apologized, saying that he had written the initials of himself and of his two daughters to leave a sign of their visit to the site.

The archaeological park declined to comment to CNN. However in June, when a tourist from Kazakhstan was caught carving his initials on the House of the Ceii in the ancient city, Pompeii’s director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said that the tourist would have to pay for the restoration of the wall.

The case has been referred upwards to the local court in Torre Annuziata as “damage to artistic heritage,” a charge which carries a fine of 20,000 to 60,000 euros and a possible jail term of up to five years thanks to laws that were toughened up in January.

The law covers acts of destroying or damaging cultural or landscape heritage. A lesser charge for defacing heritage sites can impose fines between 10,000 to 40,000 euros.

The vast site has often been victim to badly behaved tourists, who have carved their initials and stolen items since excavations began in the 1700s. In 2022, an Australian tourist even rode a moped around the ancient site.

Tourists appear to be particularly badly behaved in Italy a country whose top sites tend to be art or archaeology-focused – and are therefore more fragile than most.

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