Tourists’ beers in Rome end up costing £670 after they break into Colosseum

Two tourists ended up paying a whopping €800 (£672) for their beers in Rome after they were fined for breaking into the Colosseum to enjoy them.

The two Americans, aged 24 and 25, were spotting having a drink on the second tier of the ancient amphitheatre.

By the time they were picked up by police they’d finished their drinks and departed the scene – but that didn’t stop them from being fined hundreds of euros, the equivalent of £336 each.

“During the early hours of Monday morning some people noticed two young men drinking beer in the Colosseum, facing outwards on the second level,” a Rome’s carabinieri police force spokesperson told CNN.

“They alerted a police car nearby, which then stopped the two young men on Via dei Fori Imperiali.”

It’s not the first time tourists have found themselves in hot water after a trip to the Colosseum.

In 2020, a 32-year-old Irishman was charged by Italian police after being spotted using a sharp object to carve his name into the 1,950-year-old landmark.

Security staff at the Colosseum Archaeological Park saw the unnamed man etching his name into the stone on the first level and notified the carabinieri, reports Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Italian police were called to the scene and reportedly charged the tourist with damaging assets of historical and cultural importance.

It wasn’t clear what the penalty would be, but a Russian tourist had previously been fined €20,000 (£16,000) and received a four-year suspended sentence for carving a giant letter ‘K’ into the walls of the Colosseum.