Tourist who simulated sex with god of fertility statue defended for ‘amorous exaltation’

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

As the summer months continue and more travellers flock to   Italy   for vacation, some locals have grown tired of tourists treating their cities like a playground.

In   Florence , photos of a female tourist groping a beloved statue and miming a sex act have triggered outrage, with some officials calling for an end to bad behaviour from foreigners.

The photos were shared to   Instagram   on Tuesday. In one of the two blurry images, a woman is seen standing on the base of a life-sized statue of the Roman god Bacchus as she holds onto the sculpture and pretends to kiss it. In the second, the woman is bent over as if performing a lewd act with the figure.

The statue is a replica of a 16th-century work by Italian sculptor Giambologna and stands on a public street corner near the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The original sculpture is made of bronze and is housed inside the National Museum of Bargello.

The photos of the unidentified tourist sparked fury among Florentines. In the comments on the post, some called for the woman’s arrest and expulsion from the country.

“This is the result of years of attempts at turning Florence into Disneyland,” one person wrote in Italian.

Another Italian commenter compared the photos to U.S. sculptures and said that if they defaced the Lincoln Memorial statue, “they’d give me the electric chair.”

In a statement to the BBC, Antonella Rinaldi, Florence’s archeology and fine arts superintendent, condemned the tourist’s behaviour.

“Tourists are welcome here but   they need to respect our artworks , be they originals or replicas,” she said, adding that the woman likely didn’t know the difference in the first place.

Patrizia Asproni, president of the cultural heritage organization Confcultura, said tourists in Florence make “repeated shows of rudeness and barbarity” during their visits.

Asproni suggested Florence implement a “Singapore model” that would see tourists face “tight checks, sky-high fines and zero tolerance” for mischief like that of the viral photos.

Though Florence has a population of 366,000 residents, the city sees an influx of about 11 million tourists each year. The tourist boom has led to local frustration to do with rising costs, overcrowded public spaces, tourist trap businesses and an influx of Airbnb apartments in the heart of the city.

Florence  City Hall said the tourist had not been identified yet and suggested that she was “presumably in a state of inebriation”. If identified, she now faces a fined and could be banned from the city for life, in line with an ordinance that prohibits any sort of abuse of cultural heritage in the country, writes  The Strait Times.

Following the shocking acts, officials are being urged to crack down on the disrespect shown by holidaymakers and want a "zero policy" introduced. '"Florence is a city that does not make visitors respect it. These continuous manifestations of rudeness and incivility occur because everyone feels entitled to do what they want with impunity,' Patrizia Asproni from Confcultura, a cultural heritage organisation, said. "We need to apply the "   Singapore   model": tight controls, very high fines, zero tolerance", she added.

The statue is not an original, but a replica on the street. The original 16th Century Bacchus statue is kept in the Bargello Museum in the centre of Florence. The replica stands on a street corner near the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Residents were outraged by the images which were posted on a local   Facebook   group.

One wrote: "Here is the respect for Florence" as she blasted the tourists in the Italian city. The footage quickly went viral in Italy, with one resident writing online: 'We should force tourists to take a test on Florence before they can set foot in the city.'

Police chief Antonella Ranaldi said tourists are welcomed but must show "respect", adding: "Tourists are welcome, but there must be respect for our monuments, whether they are originals or copies. Also because I doubt that this lady, who has my blame, knows the difference.'"

Some disgruntled locals have demanded the female tourists go to prison over the "sexual" photoshoot with the statue, which is a replica of the original bronze Bacchus, which was created by Giambologna in the 1560s and is kept at the Bargello Museum.