Mio dio—vacationer will get amorous with Bacchus statue in Florence

Vacationers are inflicting havoc in Italy (once more). Final 12 months vandals defaced the Colosseum in Rome, sending locals and authorities officers right into a frenzy. Now one other reveller, as but unidentified, has despatched shockwaves by Florence after leaping on to a statue of Bacchus on a road close to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Photographs posted on social media present the younger lady hugging and kissing the statue after which (ahem) simulating sexual positions. The artwork critic and polemicist Vittorio Sgarbi, who relishes the highlight, mentioned on X (previously Twitter): “It’s a transfiguration: when artwork is more true than life. A loving exaltation. No actual man can compete with Cellini’s [demigod] Perseus. A drunk lady performs a crucial, non-erotic act.” Others disagreed. “Vacationers are welcome, however there should be respect for our monuments, whether or not they’re originals or copies,” Antonella Ranaldi, town arts superintendent, advised Corriere della Sera. The statue is a duplicate of an authentic piece created within the sixteenth century by the celebrated sculptor Giambologna. The destiny of the amorous statue hugger in the meantime stays unclear.