A local media outlet, including the daily Corriere della Sera, reported on the 13th local time that a criminal who damaged the Spanish Steps while driving his vehicle was arrested in Rome, Italy.



According to reports, Italian police arrested a 37-year-old man of foreign nationality at Milan's Malpensa Airport on the same day on charges of destroying cultural assets.



The man is accused of damaging parts of the Spanish Steps in Rome with a rental Maserati sports car on the night of the 10th.



The police identified the suspect as a suspect by comparing the driver's impressions on the CCTV captured around the Spanish Steps at the time of the incident and the man returning the car to the Malpensa Airport car rental company that day.



The man is said to have been in Italy on vacation.



After the arrest, the man admitted that he was "right driving down the Spanish Steps", but said he "just took the wrong road and didn't know the situation would be this serious."



He added, "I am ready to take any responsibility for what I have done."



According to the man, he realized that he had taken the wrong road while going down the stairs in his vehicle and tried to back up, but to no avail, he called a tow truck.



He claimed that he did not know until this point that the stairs had been damaged.



Regardless of the circumstances of the accident, the man is in a situation where he has to pay for the restoration of the stairs along with criminal punishment, local media reported.



The 135 Spanish Steps are one of the must-see attractions for tourists visiting Rome.



Completed in 1725, it is included in the Historic Center of Rome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural property of the Baroque period.



In the movie 'Roman Holiday' released in 1953, Audrey Hepburn became more famous as the backdrop for eating Italian ice cream 'Gelato'.



As corrosion and deterioration due to food spilled by numerous tourists and pigeon secretions worsened, the city of Rome received 1.5 million euros (about 2 billion won) from the luxury brand Bulgari and restored it for about two years from 2015, and then in 2016 It reopened in September.



Since then, protection regulations have been significantly strengthened, including the enforcement of an ordinance that imposes a fine of up to 400 euros (about 530,000 won) for sitting or lying on the stairs or eating food on the stairs.



(Photo = Yonhap News)