Florence officials seek to punish tourist who ‘simulated sex’ with statue of god of wine

Tourist faces lifetime ban from the city if identified

Authorities in Florence are looking to identify a tourist who ‘mimicked sex’ with life-size statue of Bacchus, the god of wine and sensuality (Instagram / @welcome_to_florence)

Authorities in Florence are trying to identify a tourist who mimicked a sex act with a statue of Bacchus after pictures of the incident went viral.

An unidentified woman, believed to be inebriated, was filmed over the weekend simulating sex with a life-size statue of Bacchus, the god of wine, pleasure and fertility, in Florence. The photos were shared by an Instagram page that goes by the handle @welcome_to_Florence.

The tourist could face a lifetime ban from the city if identified, in accordance with a law that forbids any form of mistreatment of cultural heritage in Italy.

The statue is a replica of a 16th-century work by Giambologna, with the original housed in Florence’s Bargello Museum.

The country’s culture ministry was outraged after the pictures of the tourist’s actions were shared widely on social media. The mayor’s office in Florence called it an act that “mimicked sex”.

On the Welcome to Florence post, social media users expressed their annoyance. “This is the result of years of trying to turn Florence into Disney World,” one wrote in Italian.

Another wrote: “My goodness, the level of stupidity.”

Patrizia Asproni, the president of Confcultura, an association that promotes Italy’s cultural heritage, was quoted as saying by the BBC that these “repeated shows of rudeness and barbarity” take place “because everyone feels entitled to do whatever they want with impunity”.

Ms Asproni also advocated for implementing the “Singapore model”, which involves strict checks, hefty fines, and zero tolerance for misconduct.

More recently, several famous tourist destinations have implemented various strategies to combat overtourism. For example, Venice became the first city in the world to introduce a payment system for visitors in an experiment aimed at dissuading tourists during peak periods.

Florence announced in October last year it was banning new short-term residential lets on platforms such as Airbnb in its historic centre. It also offered three years of tax breaks to landlords of short-term holiday lets if they start offering ordinary leases for residents.

In May this year, authorities in a Japanese town completed the installation of a large mesh barrier that blocks off the view of Mount Fuji, a deliberate move to discourage badly behaved tourists from taking photos at the spot.

Last year, a group of tourists allegedly toppled a valuable statue at a villa in northern Italy. In Florence, a tourist was accused of damaging a statue in the 16th-century Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria.