A tourist has been charged with defacing a historic monument after allegedly climbing the iconic Neptune Fountain in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria to touch the statue’s genitals. It was, she said, a pre-wedding prank dared by friends.
The 28-year-old woman, whose nationality has not been disclosed, was spotted by police and removed from the monument. She told officers that her friends had challenged her to touch Neptune’s genitals as part of a pre-wedding dare, according to a statement from Florence’s city council. She now faces a charge of defacing an artistic and architectural asset.
Experts from the city council who inspected the fountain afterwards found she had caused “minor but significant damage to both the legs of the horses she had walked on and to the frieze she held on to in order to avoid slipping.” Officials put the cost of the damage at €5,000.
A Renaissance masterpiece not a climbing frame
The Neptune Fountain is no ordinary street sculpture. Created by Bartolomeo Ammannati and commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of his son Francesco I to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria, it is one of the defining works of Florentine Mannerism. The monumental composition features Neptune towering over a basin filled with horses pulling a shell-shaped chariot.
It has stood at the heart of Piazza della Signoria for nearly five centuries.
Not the first time
Remarkably, this is far from an isolated incident. The authorities installed CCTV cameras around the fountain back in 2005, after a visitor climbed the statue and broke one of its hands while also damaging the chariot. In 2023, a German tourist caused significant damage attempting to scale the monument to take a selfie. That same summer, a young couple tried to climb a copy of Michelangelo’s David at Piazzale Michelangelo.
The problem extends beyond Neptune. In 2024, a teenager managed to hide inside the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore overnight, before climbing to the cupola of the UNESCO World Heritage dome, filming himself on the way up and posting a selfie to Instagram.
A “challenge” culture threatening Florence’s heritage
Giorgio Caselli, who manages the city council’s fine arts office, says the trend is growing. It has become increasingly fashionable, he warns, for tourists to treat Florence’s monuments as props for social media “challenges.”
“The physical contact that is sought with the monument is far from the objective, emotional and intellectual awareness that we expect and favour towards our monumental heritage,” Caselli said. “We must not allow ourselves any conscientious concessions to the ignorance and superficiality that characterise such actions.”
He was equally direct about the broader cultural divide between visitors and the city they pass through: “Our goal must be to awaken and cure the civic sense of those who frequent the city, which is not only to show respect towards others, but also towards monuments. Florentines are protective of their heritage and look towards visitors with suspicion. Perhaps because they don’t live in the city, they consider it more of a game.”
Florence receives roughly 16 million tourists a year, making it one of the most visited cities in Europe. Despite stricter controls around its landmarks in recent years, according to Caselli, barely a summer passes without another incident of this kind.
The Neptune Fountain has survived wars, floods, and centuries of Florentine politics. Whether it can survive the challenge and selfie era remains, apparently, an open question.
