A 33-year-old Australian tourist
drove a scooter around the peripheral road skirting the ancient
Roman ruins of Pompeii near Naples on Wednesday, archaeological
park officials said Thursday.
The man was initially reported to have driven the rented ride
inside the iconic city buried by an eruption from Vesuvius in 79
AD.
But park authorities clarified that he had just ridden the
scooter along the avenue outside the curtain walls.
"The stretch of beaten-clay road is used by firms employed on
digs and is not accessible to the public, so there was no danger
to site visitors or to the archaeological patrimony," they said.
They said the man had been spotted on CCTV after a few minutes
and stopped.
But he was cited for illegal access to an archaeological park.
The man told authorities he had not known he was committing an
offence.
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