US Tourists Pick Wrong Place to Have 5:30am Beer in Rome

The Colosseum is neither a bar, nor open at that hour
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 17, 2021 12:30 PM CST
US Tourists Were 'Just Having a Beer,' Get Fined Anyway
The Colosseum is shown.   (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Two American tourists, chatting over a beer in Rome. Unremarkable. That it happened at 5:30am is a little odder. That they allegedly broke into the Colosseum and threw one back there is downright strange—and, as you might imagine, illegal. The Guardian reports the 24- and 25-year-old men were spotted by a passerby who clued in police. When police arrived on the scene, the two reportedly said they were "just having a beer."

That said, the amphitheater closes at 4:30pm each day and definitely doesn't reopen at 5:30am. How they got in and got to the monument's second tier is unclear. They were fined $900, which CNN notes is slightly less than the fine an American man and English woman had to pay after being caught "cavorting" in a fountain in Rome in August. "That's a pretty expensive round," quips the BBC. (Assuming they go during the proper hours, tourists can now visit gladiators' underground chambers at the Colosseum.)

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