Climate activists from the Last Generation group filled the late Baroque Trevi Fountain in the center of Rome with diluted charcoal.
The police arrested all the participants of the action and charged them with vandalism, reports CNN.
The advisor for personnel, city security, local police and local authorities in the Lazio region, Luisa Regimenti, called the action a black demonstrative act of eco-vandalism that hit the world-famous symbol of Rome.
She pointed to an alarming trend of threats to monuments and works of art in Rome.
The mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, called on eco-activists to stop attacks on the city's cultural heritage. After all, this is the third such Last Generation promotion for April-May 2023.
He emphasized that now 300,000 liters of water from the fountain will have to be poured, and its cleaning will require additional costs of money, time and water.
The action was said to be a response to deadly flooding in northern Italy, which some experts have linked to the climate crisis. The flood took the lives of 14 people and the homes of 36,000.
Members of the Italian environmental association Legambiente also criticize the authorities for being unprepared for climate change.
It is noted that every year tourists throw about $1.1-1.6 million into this fountain, which they donate to the charity organization Caritas.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that in April in Rome, three so-called climate activists from the Last Generation group poured black liquid over the 17th-century Barcaccia fountain in order to draw attention to inaction on climate change.
As EcoPolitic previously reported, the Italian government is abandoning a number of eco-initiatives, in particular regarding the termination of financing of international fossil fuel projects.
