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A prehistoric rock on a popular peak in the Dolomites has been defaced with an anti-tourist message.
The grafitti reading ‘tourists go home’, was discovered next to the Eubrontes fossilised dinosaur footprints in the Tre Cime Lavaredo mountain range – a Unesco World Heritage site in Italy.
Paralympic Nordic skier Moreno Pesce shared a video of the etchings on Facebook captioned: “Loving the mountains and sharing a passion is not this...Good life but above all good and healthy mountains...different from this one.”
Pesce discovered the message penned in permanent marker while climbing in the northern Italian peaks, and said in the footage that “it was not a nice awakening for the Tre Cime”.
The unwelcoming message was located along the busy trail between the Auronzo and Lavaredo mountains. It was next dinosaur footprints, discovered in 1992, which are estimated to be between 200 and 250 million years old.
One local commented: “The biggest bitterness is that above all the locals are encouraging the arrival of the imperfect tourist. Mountaineers promoting everything to attract people of all kinds to make easy money. Total disappointment. The mountain betrayed by its own inhabitants...”
It’s not the first time graffiti on a historic site has caused a stir in Italy.
In August, a 37-year-old British tourist faced a hefty fine from the Italian authorities after carving his family’s initials onto a wall in Pompeii.
The unnamed man was caught by staff leaving his mark on the House of the Vestals – a Unesco World Heritage Site – and reported to the public prosecutor’s office in Torre Annunziata.
Photographs show the initials ‘JW’, ‘LMW’ and ‘MW’, believed to correspond with his daughters’ names, scratched next to the date (7 August 2024) and the word ‘Mylaw’.
Earlier this month, Italy proposed increasing its tourist tax to €25 a night for holidaymakers staying in its most expensive hotel rooms.
The Italian government is considering the €25 (£21) tax – currently between €1 and €5 per night in cities such as Venice – to make tourists “more responsible” and help financially disadvantaged areas fund services like refuse collections.
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