Italy's culture and tourism ministers have vowed to find and punish a tourist who was filmed carving his name and that of his apparent girlfriend in the wall of the Colosseum in Rome.
The English-speaking tourist was filmed engraving a message reading “Ivan+Haley 23” on the Colosseum on Friday afternoon.
It comes at a time when Romans already were complaining about hordes of tourists flooding the Eternal City in record numbers this summer.
The crime has resulted in hefty fines in the past.
A fellow tourist, Ryan Litz, of Orange, California, filmed the incident and posted the video on YouTube and Reddit.
The video received more than 1,500 social media views and was picked up by Italian media.
Mr Litz told the Associated Press on Tuesday he was “dumbfounded” that someone would deface such an important monument.
Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano called the writing carved into the almost 2,000-year-old Flavian Ampitheatre “serious, undignified and a sign of great incivility”.
He said he hoped the culprits would be found “and punished according to our laws”.
Italian news agency Ansa noted that the incident marked the fourth time this year that such graffiti was reported at the Colosseum.
It said whoever was responsible for the latest episode risked £12,000 in fines and up to five years in prison.
Tourism minister Daniela Santanche said she hoped the tourist would be sanctioned “so that he understands the gravity of the gesture”.
