Police in Italy have arrested a 37-year-old man for driving a rented Maserati Levante down Rome’s iconic Trinità dei Monti stairs, also known as the Spanish Steps.
CCTV footage captured the black Levante driving down the steps in the early hours of the morning. Evidently, the driver of the Maserati didn’t really think through the bizarre stunt as the SUV’s license plates were on full display and local authorities were able to quickly trace it back to a rental car company based on Milan.
Writing on Facebook, the Polizia Roma Capitale said they were able to identify the driver of the SUV thanks to help from the rental car company. He was arrested at Milan Malpensa Airport when attempting to return the car.
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Sky News reports that the Maserati caused fractures to the 16th and 29th steps of the right-hand staircase and that they had to be temporarily fixed to allow for continued pedestrian use. Rome’s heritage protection body said some of the fragments were reattached to the stairs but added that further work will be required to properly restore them.
“Widespread chippings, scratches, abrasions, and deposits on both ramps of the second level, attributable to the same event” were discovered after the incident.
The man’s motivations behind the bizarre stunt remain unclear.
The Spanish Steps run from the Trinità dei Monti church at the top to the Piazza di Spagna at the base. They were constructed between 1723 and 1725 and have become one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions.
