(DailyExpertNews) — A female tourist was kicked out of Venice after she was caught posing topless for photos at a war memorial.
The 30-year-old from the Czech Republic stripped naked last Friday afternoon and dumped her belongings on the monument – which pays tribute to Italy’s war heroes – as she went swimming in the icy lagoon and then lay down next to the statue of a murdered female partisan to pray. pose for pictures.
She was banned from Venice for 48 hours and fined $513.
Local Mario Nason was walking with his son when he saw the woman and her two companions at the monument, which stands on the water’s edge.
“It was a beautiful day and we saw two people taking pictures. I saw a strange movement and then I saw this woman swimming carefree,” Nason told DailyExpertNews.
“I thought she must be crazy, thinking she could swim on a freezing cold day.
“But then I saw her try to get out of the water by climbing on the statue wearing only her bikini bottom.
She insisted and then went back into the water completely relaxed.
“Her boyfriend and another woman had jumped the barrier and stood on the monument to get better photos of her. They were standing there next to her clothes she’d left behind. [on the monument]just like on the beach.”
The woman, who has not been named, has been arrested by police. They fined her €350 ($400) and beat her with a warrant of antisocial behavior, including a 48-hour ban from the city, which comes with a separate fine of €100 ($113).
The woman took a dip in the icy water before posing topless for photos at the war memorial. DailyExpertNews has blurred parts of this image to protect the identities of people in the photo.
thanks to Matteo Nason
“It was unbelievable because [the tourists] asked, ‘How is this a problem?’ They had no idea what they were doing,” Nason said.
“It’s like going to Rome, jumping into the Trevi Fountain and saying, ‘What do you mean, you can’t do this?’
“You can say, whatever, they didn’t kill anyone. But when I’m traveling, when I see a fountain, I don’t feel the urge to jump in it. When I’m in Paris and walking along the Seine, I do that’s not “I’m not throwing myself in the river. If I went to Prague, threw my clothes on a monument and went swimming, wouldn’t anything happen? It’s common sense. Why do people do these things in Venice that they wouldn’t do elsewhere?’ “
The tourist went for a swim in the lagoon, before lying down next to the statue of the murdered partisan and posing for photos.
Giacomo Cosua/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A spokesman for the local police told DailyExpertNews that according to their report, the woman was lying on the monument, impersonating the dead partisan for a photo.
“She wanted the statue in the picture,” they said. “I imagine she apologized.”
Tourists behaving badly in Venice is nothing new. Just a week earlier, a man stripped naked and plunged into the Grand Canal — he was never caught.
Others have been fined and expelled from the city for violating decency rules. Last summer, a Scottish tourist was kicked out for diving off the Accademia Bridge into the Grand Canal after a drunken night out. And in 2019, a German couple was evicted for making coffee on a camping stove under the Rialto Bridge.
“Sitting in St. Mark’s Square with a slice of pizza or making coffee is great to put on Facebook, but if 30 million tourists behave like this, Venice becomes a beach or a campground,” says Nason.
“This goes beyond the personal disturbance of the sensitivity around the partisan monument. They probably didn’t know that the statue of the woman lying there was a dead partisan. But it treats Venice like a beach.
“Just because you have the urge to do something doesn’t mean you should do it.”