{"id":10208,"date":"2026-04-26T13:15:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/10208\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T13:15:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:15:54","slug":"tourist-damages-florences-neptune-fountain-in-pre-wedding-stunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/10208\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourist Damages Florence\u2019s Neptune Fountain in Pre-Wedding Stunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy\u2019s naughty tourists<\/a> are at it again. This week, officials in Florence revealed that one \u201cyoung foreigner\u201d recently caused \u20ac5,000 ($5,800) in damage while trying to grope the iconic Neptune fountain in the Tuscan capital\u2019s Piazza della Signoria, the UNESCO World Heritage Site that\u2019s home to the 700-year-old Palazzo Vecchio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incident occurred last Saturday afternoon, according to<\/a> the City of Florence, when a 28-year-old woman in town from an undisclosed country mounted the maximalist fountain\u2019s rim and made her way towards the towering depiction of Neptune, also known as the Biancone, presiding over its center. \u201cHer intention was to \u2018touch\u2019 the statue\u2019s private parts as part of a sort of pre-wedding challenge,\u201d authorities reported. Luckily, several officer happened to be nearby, and quickly intervened.<\/p>\n

The sculpture was commissioned in 1559 by Cosimo I de\u2019 Medici from Italian architect Bartolomeo Ammannati and famed Flanders-born Mannerist Giambologna<\/a>, to mark the marriage between his son Francesco de\u2019 Medici and grand duchess Joanna of Austria. The resemblance between Cosimo I, a maritime maven, and the Roman god of the sea is palpable.<\/p>\n

On Monday, specialists from the Fabbrica di Palazzo Vecchio, the body responsible for maintaining the Palazzo Vecchio, assessed the naked Neptune. During their inspection, crews discovered damage on the legs of a horse that the reveler had climbed in her bid to stay dry while accomplishing her raunchy dare. Experts found further damage on a frieze that she\u2019d clung to as well.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Two horses on the Neptune fountain in Piazza della Signoria, Florence. Photo via Getty News.<\/p>\n

The City of Florence has not yet answered a request for further details about the nature of these purportedly \u201cminor but significant\u201d damages. The offender, meanwhile, has been reported to the city\u2019s judicial authority for the defacement of an architectural and artistic heritage site. This week\u2019s release emphasized that she remains \u201cpresumed innocent until a final judgment is rendered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this is hardly an isolated incident. European leaders\u2014especially those situated in Roman history-rich Italy\u2014are increasingly at a loss<\/a> regarding how to defend their critical relics against overtourism and dangerous stunts staged for photo-ops or social media. Last June alone, a car got stuck<\/a> on Rome\u2019s famed Spanish Steps, someone selfie-ed too close to a painting<\/a> at Florence\u2019s Uffizi Gallery, and a tourist crushed a Swarovski-crusted chair<\/a> at the Palazzo Maffei museum in Verona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s naughty tourists are at it again. This week, officials in Florence revealed that one \u201cyoung foreigner\u201d recently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7500,4224,7492,7491,436,7486,7489,208,7497,7499,5,7495,4217,7496,7490,7494,7493,7488,7498,3576,7485,5394,7145,7487],"class_list":{"0":"post-10208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-art-crime","9":"tag-artnet-news","10":"tag-bartolomeo-ammannati","11":"tag-biancone","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-damage","14":"tag-dare","15":"tag-florence","16":"tag-francesco-de-medici","17":"tag-horses","18":"tag-italy","19":"tag-joanna-of-austria","20":"tag-marble","21":"tag-medici","22":"tag-neptune","23":"tag-palazzo-vecchio","24":"tag-piazza-della-signoria","25":"tag-prank","26":"tag-sculpture","27":"tag-tourism","28":"tag-tourist","29":"tag-tuscany","30":"tag-vandalism","31":"tag-wedding"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}