Authorities in Sicily (southern Italy) have launched an investigation after the Turks Staircase, a famous white cliff in the coastal town of Realmonte, was vandalized by unknown persons, staining it with a mixture of water and dust. of red plaster this icon of the Italian island tourism.
The prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio has opened a file against unknown persons for damage to landscaping assets and has ordered the police to examine and investigate the material used, a powder that dissolves in water to paint exteriors, as well as to control the images of the system of surveillance, local media report.
The fact that the authors of the vandalism, discovered this Saturday, did not use paint has allowed part of the disaster to be cleaned up and the cliff is expected to regain its splendor.
"We wonder how this can happen considering that the area is prohibited", said in a statement Pippo Cosentino, coordinator of the Archeoclub of Italy Sicilia, who regretted the damage suffered by " a precious, beautiful environmental heritage, envied by everyone".
The national president of the organization, Rosario Santanastasio, announced that they will constitute a civil party in the process that judges the guilty of an act that he described as "very serious".
The Staircase of the Turks (Scala dei Turchi in Italian), near Agrigento, is a cliff of a characteristic white color that gives it a stone called marl and that is shaped like steps and that receives its name because tradition says that in that pirates hiding place.
The cliff, famous for being the backdrop for many of the adventures of Commissioner Montalbano, the famous policeman from the successful novels of Andrea Camilleri, is visited by tourists from all over the world until it becomes an icon of the island of Sicily.
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