Everyone’s accidentally driven down a one-way street or put their car somewhere it’s not supposed to be… But we bet you’ve never screwed up as badly as this Yank has.
An American tourist has been fined €470 (~US$511 / AU$763) after driving a rented Ferrari 488 Pista into the Piazza della Signoria, a famous pedestrianized square in the historic centre of Florence and home to many of the city’s best-known landmarks. He also reportedly parked the car in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence’s iconic town hall. Talk about palle.
Motorbikes and pushbikes are allowed in the famous piazza, but not cars – and definitely not cars that can run over pedestrians at 300km/h.
Not only did he break traffic laws, but apparently he also didn’t have a proper international driver’s license – instead just driving the Swiss-registered car on his normal American driver’s license.
“Checks revealed that the 43-year-old driver had an American driving license that did not comply with international conventions and did not have an international driving permit or official translation,” a statement from the Municipality of Florence said.
All things considered, €470 is a pretty small fine – we can’t imagine police in other cities around the world taking such an offence so lightly. Imagine how much cops would sting you for driving down Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall?
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This Seppo isn’t the only tourist who’s got up to some vehicular mischief in Italy recently. In January, another American was fined €500 after driving a rented Fiat Panda across another Florentine landmark, the Ponte Vecchio bridge (which is also a pedestrian-only affair).
An even more embarrassing moment happened last year when a Saudi national drove a rented Maserati Levante down Rome’s iconic Spanish Steps… Only to get stuck halfway down and then flee the scene in disgrace. He was arrested at the airport and charged with damaging a cultural monument. He blamed it on a sat nav mistake. Yikes.