An Italian man built a fake Roman amphitheatre, fooled tourists for nearly 10 years and charged €40 for guided tours

Visitors to a hillside near Vicenza in northern Italy spent nearly a decade believing they were exploring the remains of a forgotten Roman amphitheatre. Guided by dramatic tales of ancient emperors, gladiators and even visits by Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, they willingly paid €40 for tours of what appeared to be an extraordinary archaeological discovery. In reality, investigators later found that the entire site had been built using modern materials by Franco Malosso von Rosenfranz, a local man who presented the homemade structure as authentic ancient ruins. The unusual deception, which reportedly even found its way into some tourism material, came to an end only after archaeologists and police exposed the elaborate hoax that had fooled visitors for years. A fake Roman amphitheatre that fooled visitors for yearsThe site was located in Arcugnano, a municipality near the city of Vicenza in Italy's Veneto region. Malosso promoted the structure as the Berico Maritime Amphitheatre, claiming it had been uncovered after a landslide and represented a remarkable archaeological discovery. Over the years, the attraction drew curious visitors eager to explore what they believed was a forgotte...