The tourist who carved his name into the ancient walls of the Colosseum claims he hadn’t realized how old the building was before he acted.
Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old British fitness instructor, was filmed using a key to scratch his and his girlfriend’s name into the 2,000-year-old landmark last month.
On Wednesday, a letter of apology written by Dimitrov to the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri was published by Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper.
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…
Writing that he didn’t realize
the seriousness of the deed committed…
It is with deep embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened did I learn of the antiquity of the monument.”
Dimitrov could still face a $15,000 fine and a 5 year prison sentence for carving “Ivan + Hayley 23” onto the building.
Italian 🇮🇹 police say tourist filmed allegedly carving ‘Ivan+Hayley’ on Rome’s Colosseum has been identified
— Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) June 30, 2023
Meet Ivan Dimitrov, a Bristol resident 🇬🇧 originally from Bulgaria 🇧🇬, works as a fitness instructor
His partner's name is Haley Braceyhttps://t.co/gEoSGPgV3f pic.twitter.com/YpLe1C0ykM
(Photos, screen grabs; via The Daily Beast)
