Italy holiday warning as tourists could land £3,000 fines for ‘harmless’ beach habit

Rome: British holidaymakers enjoying the sun-kissed shores of the Italian island of Sardinia could be slapped with £3,000 fines for what might appear an ordinary act.

Authorities on the Italian Mediterranean island have warned visitors taking sand, rocks and shells from beaches could be met with severe fines.

It’s after several tourists were caught smuggling archaeological remains from the island which was occupied by many ancient civilisations.

According to Euronews, authorities captured a French holidaymaker trying to take home rare stalagmite rock formations and a German family who had more than a kilogram of stones with them from the seabed.

In 2019 a French couple was caught with 14 plastic bottles filled with sand.

Now Sardinian police have the powers to issue heavy fines to anyone found taking such material out of the country, and severe cases could even earn visitors jail time.

Sand, pebbles, stones and even shells taken from the beaches could spell trouble for tourists, who could face a charge of “theft with the aggravating circumstance of having stolen an asset of public utility”.

Referring to the incident involving the French couple and bottles of sand, Sardinian environmental scientist Pierluigi Cocco told the BBC: “Only a fraction of the tourists visiting Sardinia spend their time digging up to 40kg of sand each.

“But if you multiply half that amount times five percent of the one million tourists per year, in a few years that would contribute significantly to the reduction of beaches.”

Sardinian campaign group “Sardinia robbed and plundered” said at least six tonnes of sand was taken from the island’s beaches in just one August.

In a statement the group said: “Most people don’t really have a motive.

“Perhaps to arouse the envy of friends and relatives, to relive the emotion of the holiday in their drawing room, or even to decorate an aquarium.”

“(Tourists are likely) trying desperately, but unfortunately in vain, to take a piece of it away [in] their hands, instead of keeping memories in memory and heart.”