When you visit someone else's home you are supposed to treat it the same way that you treat you own home, that in unless of course you treat your own place like a garbage dump. It's simple respect and common sense, and that should go double for when you visit another country. Just because you are paying to be there doesn't mean that you have carte blanche to do whatever you want regardless of the consequences.
These eight tourists made huge mistakes that make the rest of us look like idiots when visiting other parts of the world.
1. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence
This is one of the most respected museums in the world, and it houses some of history's most prized pieces of art, including a 600-year-old statue by the famed sculptor Giovanni d'Ambrogio. For some reason, an American tourist decided that he wanted to measure the hands of the statue, which was a massive mistake. When he attempted to make the measurement, he broke off the pinky finger on the right hand, causing a massive uproar.
2. A statue of Dom Sebastiao - Lisbon Train Station
Selfies are all the rage these days, no one seems to feel fulfilled while on vacation unless the have snapped dozens of these "candid" shots. But what people need to remember, is to be careful regardless of what you are doing.
An unnamed 24-year-old man attempted to take a selfie with a famed statue of Dom Sebastiao at the Lisbon Train Station. The man even had to climb the walls of the station in order to get close enough to take the photo. The end result, he broke the entire sculpture to pieces.
3. Yellowstone National Park - Bison calf
Bison roam the planes of Yellowstone National Park, it is their natural habitat. An international couple on vacation in the park spotted a herd of bison which included a young calf. They decided that the calf looked cold, so they separated the calf from its family and put it into their vehicle to keep it from "freezing".
When park rangers attempted to reintroduce the calf to the herd it was shunned because it had been handled by humans. In the end they had to euthanize the young bison because it would not be able to survive on its own in the wild.
4. Easter Island Heads
The Easter Island Heads are iconic even though most average people really don't know much about them other than that they are cool to look at. One man from Finland decided to get a closer look, and for reasons that no one seems to be able to explain, he decided to rip an earlobe off of one of the historically significant statues. Apparently it may have been his attempt at bringing home a souvenir. Dumb ass.
Some people just don't think about what they are doing, while others act maliciously. But remember, some accidents do happen.
5. Rome's Colosseum
People have been hopping the fence at the Colosseum for years. It is against the law, but in reality if nothing is done to the building itself, entering the historic structure is harmless (but still follow the rules for visiting). That being said, police captured two men from Brazil who had been injured trying to hop the gate.
Later that same day, authorities found two words spray painted inside the Colosseum, though they didn't figure out the connection between the two situations right away.
6. Paolo Porpora's oil-on-canvas work called "Flowers."
This painting which hangs in a Taipei museum is estimated to be worth somewhere in the ballpark of $1.5 million. It is over 350 years old, so it is understandable that museum officials were upset when a 12-year-old boy tripped while he was walking, putting one of his fists through the bottom right hand corner of the painting.
This was a pure accident, and the 12-year-old was beside himself apologizing for causing the damage. The painting was on loan from a private collection, which means that someone had one of their prized painting damaged.
7. Qing dynasty vases
This is another pure accident, and if anything the museum's curators are to blame for this one. Nick Flynn was visiting a museum in Cambridge when he tripped on a set of stairs, tumbling down them into a display of priceless Qing dynasty vases. Seriously, who puts a display of extremely breakable and expensive pieces of glass and pottery at the bottom of a flight of stairs?
8. The idiot who spray painted on a Rothko painting.
Some people are just stupid. Vladimir Umanets decided he was going to spray paint over a painting by abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko, in order to start his own artistic movement. The painting had to go through a massive restoration treatment, and Umanets landed himself in prison for a two year sentence. He even signed his own name onto the canvas...
Have you ever made a mistake while on vacation? Can you tell us about it?