Tourist misadventures at the Eiffel Tower and the Trevi fountain

08.19.23

In travel news this week, misbehaving tourists in Europe, the German couple who moved to Italy to open a restaurant and city vacation ideas from Seoul to Bratislava.

By Maureen O'Hare

⛲ Law and order

Eiffel Tower (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)

Europe's top landmarks were besieged by troublemaking tourists this week. In Paris, drunken Americans were trapped overnight up the Eiffel Tower. In a separate incident, a man was arrested after jumping off Gustave Eiffel's crowning achievement with a parachute.

And when in Rome, don't do as this woman did, which is to clamber into the 18th-century Trevi fountain to top up her water bottle, before being stopped by a guard.

According to a recent lawsuit, drinking was also a problem on a Delta Air Lines flight last summer, when a male passenger is alleged to have groped a mother and daughter after he was allegedly served around 10 vodka drinks.

Finally, a British farm is asking visitors to stop stripping off their bloomers to pose nude among their blooms. Stoke Fruit Farm, on Hayling Island off England's south coast, has been troubled by exhibitionists among the sunflowers, taking photos where the sun don't shine, and the owners have had enough.

They could have done with the help of our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN. Their selection of the best travel pants of 2023 for men and women will assure you're both comfortable and covered on your adventures.

🍕 Food and drink

It takes a certain kind of bravery to move from your home country of Germany to go make pizza in Italy. Italians are notoriously discerning when it comes to their native cuisine, but a Munich couple has won hearts and minds in a Ligurian village through novel pizza creations featuring sauerkraut and kebabs.

The best baguette in Paris, meanwhile, isn't made by a Frenchman. Sri Lankan Tharshan Selvarajah won the prestigious baking Grand Prix for the breads produced at his bakery in a quiet corner of eastern Paris' 20th arrondissement. Here's what makes them so good.

Finally, the US love affair with Thai food began back in the 1960s, and it's now one of the nation's most popular cuisines despite Thai people making up just 0.1% of the overall population. The cuisine has evolved over the decades, though, and today's chefs are going beyond pad thai to create a more authentic experience.

🇰🇷 Destination inspiration

K-pop and K-drama have risen to the forefront of modern culture, and the city to see where it all began is Seoul, the South Korean capital. Thanks to its fascinating mix of cutting-edge technology and a deep respect for traditions, Seoul is one of the 21st century's most captivating urban centers.

Some 400 miles (645 kilometers) southeast of Seoul, the Japanese city of Hiroshima has a name that echoes through history because of the atomic bomb that detonated over it 78 years ago this month. But while the hollowed-out remains of the Genbaku Dome still stand as a reminder of the devastating cost of war, the modern city is a thriving metropolis of one million people and a proud embodiment of resilience against the odds.

Finally, Bratislava in Slovakia is one of Europe's lesser-known capitals, but its spectacular array of Soviet-inspired sci-fi architecture make it as compelling a destination as its neighboring capitals of Vienna and Prague – and it's a lot less crowded, too.

🚙 Road trip

A camper van from PacWesty (Pacific North Westy, LLC).

Yellowstone National Park in the western United States had almost a million visitors in July, proving that epic road trips are as popular as ever.

If you want to see the world on four wheels, we've rounded up six places you can hire electric camper vans, from Norway to California. But if you really want a traveling palace, the Elemment Palazzo Superior is billed as "the most luxurious mobile home in the world." This double-decker RV even has its own pop-up rooftop lounge.

Belgian couple Nicolas Chazee and Mathilde Vougny love road trips so much their first date was a tour around their home country. Now they're on their biggest adventure yet, driving around the world in a Land Rover. Here's how they've been getting on.

🏄🏽 Australian castaways rescued

A group of Australian surfers was rescued in waters off a remote Indonesian island, 38 hours after their boat was hit by a storm. Read their story here and see video of the moment they were found.

👀 In case you missed it