In an event bound to give American tourists a bad/worse name abroad, 2 Californian tourists have mailed back a chunk of the Colosseum they stole 25 years ago.
They had the small rock in their souvenir collection, but claim they kept feeling guilty every time they saw it (which begs the question why they didn’t mail it back sooner).
Of course, once chipped off the landmark, you can’t exactly glue it back in place, so the real damage had already been done.
Still, the head of the tourist board accepted their apology, and invited them to come back to Rome any time they want. He even used the news as an opportunity to promote his city some more, saying “The message is that visitors to our city continue to cherish it even after so many years”.
The lesson to be learned here is as simple as it is logical – do no steal pieces of historical landmarks.