I love to hate on Americans (in a friendly way) as much as the next European, however American tourists aren’t that bad. This level of stupid assholery is 99% Chinese tourists, the missing 1% is Russians. No hate for Chinese, Russians, anyone that can behave themselves though- they probably hate their fellow citizens more that anyone of us ever could.
And 98% of those asshole Chinese tourists are the ones that travel with a group. It's rarely like a young Chinese couple on their honeymoon. It's almost always some middle age and older nouveau riche dickwad who is too afraid to travel by themselves.
We have a Venetian saying for those situations "(de)scantabaùchi" which is hard to translate even in standard Italian, more or less it means "idiot-awakener"
No one got hurt or died, so imo it's fine to laugh here, and this particular quote was just especially good.
“It’s true that compared with 10 or 15 years ago, tourists weigh a bit more,” Andrea Balbi, the president of Venice’s gondoliers’ association, told the Guardian at the time.
I think it's mandatory that every tourist horror story has to include at least one American anecdote.
From the last paragraph ...
In 2022, an American tourist sustained minor injuries after he fell into the crater of Mount Vesuvius as he tried to retrieve his phone, which had slipped out of his hand while taking a selfie.
You should see beyond what's written: Venice has a big tourists' problem, who are not only increasing in numbers but also disrespectful of the history, the city and the people working and living in it. This story isn't anecdotical, it's emblematic of a widespread issue of touristic consumerism.