So, it’s all going down – in many ways - in the picturesque region of Puglia in southern Italy (that’s the ‘heel’ in Italy’s ‘boot’, geography fans).
The area is gaining a reputation as Italy’s answer to Magaluf after a grainy video emerged of couple having oral sex on an empty beach in the fishing port of Gallipoli at dawn.
Just who was up at dawn filming them at that time isn’t clear – but the video made it on to the Facebook page of a local group called Citizen’s Committee for the Liberation of Gallipoli, who are campaigning against the rise in ‘rude’ tourists to the city.
To put the boot in (sorry, terrible Puglia joke) the unidentified couple were caught doing the act on the Beach of Purity.
The video has since been removed – but not before the press picked up on it and 300 locals protested in front of the town hall calling for tougher action on the increasing drunkenness and vulgarity in the town.
Now Italian national newspaper La Repubblica has joined in, calling Gallipoli ‘the capital of sex, drugs, alcohol, trash – and trashy tourism.’
It seems quite a lot of furore considering the beach was empty – it’s hardly the same as the couple caught doing it in the sea in the middle of the day in Maguluf just a few metres away from families. But it’s just the latest in what locals are saying is a massive increase in drunken and vulgar behaviour by tourists in Puglia.
A local accident and emergency spokesman has said young people’s excesses in Puglia is such that ambulance services were ‘often paralysed by the number of call outs for drunkenness.’ Basically, it sounds nothing like that chic Italian break they have in The Talented Mr Ripley.
Italy is getting quite worked up about tanked-up tourists in general ast the moment. In Venice two men were videoed urinating in bins, while in Rome, Australian tourists were filmed diving into the famous Trevi fountain. And earlier this month a Frenchman and two Italian women were arrested and charged with trespassing after allegedly breaking into the Surburban Baths at Pompeii to reinact the explicit sex scenes on the wall.
READ MORE: There’s Another Video Of A Girl Being Forced To Simulate Sex On Stage In Magaluf
It follows a summer of controversy in Magaluf, a resort on the Spanish island of Mallorca. In July a video of an 18-year-old girl giving 24 guys a blowjob in front of a screaming crowd went viral. Similar stories followed, incliding a video of a woman being dragged onstage to take part in a sex show.
It led to the Balearic Island Tourist Council drawing up a code of behaviour promising to shut down clubs and bars with live sex shows and the mayor promising to push for new mandatory licenses that will make clubs ‘prove their responsibility’.
But the controversy in Puglia shows Magaluf isn’t the only place where drunken tourists are causing a problem with the locals.
If even the Italians – known for their amorous displays of affection and their love of a naked statue – are offended by what’s going on, then things must be getting bad over there. Apparently, not everyone is that upset though. Comments on the Italian newspaper story include ‘lucky them’ and ‘wish that were me’.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.