Dinosaur footprint boulder vandalised below Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Dolomites) with 'Tourists go home' graffiti

A boulder at the foot of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Dolomites) was vandalised with the graffiti "Tourists go home". The Italian mountaineer and paralympic athlete Moreno Pesce discovered the painting the other day and posted a video online, emphasising that "for the Tre Cime, this was not a nice awakening".

The graffiti has caused quite a stir, primarily because the writing is located on a huge dolomite boulder famous for its dinosaur footprints. The boulder is on the main path that leads from Rifugio Auronzo to Rifugio Lavaredo and, as such, is located in the Tre Cime Natural Park, in the area declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2009.

While the perpetrators remain unknown, the message suggests that the reasons are linked to the chronic overtourism of which the Tre Cime di Lavaredo have become an international emblem. Together with the nearby Lake Braies, the Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast, Venice, etc. The list is long, the negative effects and social impacts immense.

The vandalised boulder deserves unequivocal condemnation, but there is no doubt that every summer certain areas are literally besieged by tourists and that, for the survival of these territories, drastic measures are urgently needed to efficiently manage and contrast the suffocating hordes of visitors.