Italians are furious at newly posted photos of an unidentified female tourist making sexual moves on a historic statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and fertility. The photos, shared by the Instagram account Welcome to Florence, show a woman in jean shorts and a black crop top grinding on and kissing the statue on a street corner near the Ponte Vecchio at night. Antonella Rinaldi, Florence’s superintendent of archaeology and fine arts, scoffed at the lewd display on the modern replica of the original 16th-century statue and said tourists need to respect all Italian artwork, even when it’s not the real deal. “Although I doubt this lady—whom I condemn—even knows the difference,” Rinaldi added. The woman’s impromptu dance party is reigniting debates about implementing tourism fees and respecting the culture of the vacation destination, which has a population of just under 400,000. Last year, roughly 1.5 million tourists flooded the city between June and September, crowding public spaces and swarming Florence’s narrow streets.
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