The UK tourist who was caught on video carving his and his fiancée’s names into the wall of Rome’s Colosseum offered a groveling apology to the city, along with a mind-boggling explanation — claiming that he didn’t realize just how ancient the world-famous landmark was before he defaced it.
Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old Bulgarian-born fitness trainer living in Bristol, England, penned a letter to Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, begging forgiveness after allegedly using a key to etch “Ivan + Hayley 23” into the 2,000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage site last month.
In the note published in the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero Wednesday, Dimitrov, who faces a steep fine and possible jail time, claimed that he did not know how old the Colosseum — one of the world’s most recognized monuments — was until it was too late.
“It is with deep embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened did I learn of the antiquity of the monument,” Dimitrov confessed.
The ill-informed fitness instructor, who was identified by Italian police as the culprit behind the vandalism after a five-day search, wrote that only now did he realize “the seriousness of the deed committed.”
“Through these lines I would like to address my heartfelt and honest apologies to the Italians and to the whole world for the damage caused to an asset which, in fact, is the heritage of all humanity,” Dimitrov pleaded.
Dimitrov’s attorney, Alexandro Maria Tirelli, painted his client as a run-of-the-mill ignorant tourist.
“The boy is the prototype of the foreigner who frivolously believes that anything is allowed in Italy, even the type of act which in their own countries would be severely punished,” Tirelli told Il Messaggero.
Dimitrov was seen in a viral video late last month wearing a blue flowery shirt and gleefully carving up an internal wall of the Roman stone amphitheater completed by Emperor Titus in 80 AD.
The video of the visitor’s antics, titled “A**hole tourist carves name in Colosseum in Rome,” was uploaded to YouTube on June 23, before spreading across social media and sparking outrage.
Ryan Lutz, of Orange, California, who filmed the act of vandalism, said he had just finished a guided tour of the Colosseum when he spotted the fellow tourist “blatantly carving his name” into the wall.
“And as you see in the video, I kind of approach him and ask him, dumbfounded at this point, ‘Are you serious? Are you really serious?’” Lutz said. “And all he could do is like smile at me.”
Lutz said guards at the site failed to take action when he approached them with his incriminating footage.
Italy’s Carabinieri police said days later that they identified the suspect and his gal pal, and opened an investigation, but the couple had left the country before they could be detained.
“This act was offensive to everyone around the world who appreciates the value of archaeology, monuments and history,” said Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.
Dimitrov, originally from Lovech, Bulgaria, could face a fine of more than $16,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years if convicted of damaging a cultural heritage asset in Italy.
