I'm having a bit of trouble finding any high-res or close-up pictures of the amphitheatre.
Going by this one, the columns look dubious as fuck, but the cavea is really, really fucking impressive. The fact it fooled so many visitors is reason enough to assume it looked sufficiently legit in person.
Even more impressive is the fact that he appears to have built the whole thing alone, or certainly with a team small enough that officials were completely unaware of the construction effort.
I suppose Italy is going to be massively precious about its Roman heritage, but sentencing him to a two-year prison sentence, plus a compensation order, plus an order to demolish the structure and restore the hill to its original condition seems incredibly harsh given the fact he'll potentially be in his 70s when he's released.
Hardly seems as egregious an act as that cunt who carved his initials into the colosseum and ended up walking away with a €965 fine...
(, Wed 29 Jul 2026, 8:07, Reply)