US Tourist Causes Thousands in Damage at Rome's Spanish Steps

Two American tourists caused more than $26,000 in damages at Rome's Spanish Steps when they threw an electric scooter down the famous site.

The incident was captured on video and shows a 29-year-old man wheeling a rental scooter down the site.

His companion, a 28-year-old woman, is seen walking behind him with her own scooter before shoving it down the iconic stairs.

People around her laughed and, according to the Italian-language newspaper La Repubblica, she threw the scooter down again twice more which cause the marble steps to crack.

Police later tracked down the couple, fined the equivalent of $430 each and banned them from the site.

This is the second time in recent weeks the Spanish Steps have received a beating from a tourist.

A 37-year-old visiting from Saudi Arabia drove his rental Maserati SUV down the steps, blaming his GPS for giving him bad directions.

That incident cracked a couple of the steps and chipped other sections of the staircase.


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