Visitors to a hillside near Vicenza in northern Italy spent nearly a decade believing they were exploring the remains of a forgotten Roman amphitheatre. Guided by dramatic tales of ancient emperors, gladiators and even visits by Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, they willingly paid €40 for tours of what appeared to be an extraordinary archaeological discovery. In reality, investigators later found that the entire site had been built using modern materials by Franco Malosso von Rosenfranz, a local man who presented the homemade structure as authentic ancient ruins. The unusual deception, which reportedly even found its way into some tourism material, came to an end only after archaeologists and police exposed the elaborate hoax that had fooled visitors for years.
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