Italian officials vow to catch vandal who carved name into Colosseum wall

A tourist was spotted carving their name into a wall of the Colosseum (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italy’s culture and tourism ministers have vowed to find and punish a tourist who was filmed carving his name and that of his apparent girlfriend in the wall of the Colosseum in Rome, a crime that resulted in hefty fines in the past.

The message reading “Ivan+Haley 23” appeared on the Colosseum at a time when Romans already were complaining about hordes of tourists flooding the Eternal City in record numbers this summer.