‘Mix up’ sends driver, 80, down Spanish Steps in Rome

An 80-year-old man who drove his car down the Spanish Steps in Rome at 4am has told police he took a wrong turn on the way to work.

The Mercedes stuck halfway down the historic Spanish Steps in Rome.

An 80-year-old man who drove his car down the Spanish Steps in Rome at 4am has told police he took a wrong turn on the way to work.

The local man, who has not been named, steered his Mercedes A-class car off the street at the top of the historic site and careered down the steps before coming to halt halfway down, where police found him.

“I am sorry. I have made a mistake,” the man told officers, adding that he had got his streets mixed up on the way to work.

The police force said: “He was uninjured and seemed clear-headed and tested negative for alcohol, but it is strange he claimed he was heading to work at that time of day.”

Police cordoned off the steps and removed the car with a crane before placing the man under investigation for damaging a national monument.

The Spanish Steps, which were built in 1726, offer sweeping views across Rome from the top before descending to Piazza di Spagna.

The Mercedes is hoisted off the steps.

The steps, which take their name from the nearby Spanish embassy to the Vatican, are normally packed with tourists but were empty when the man rattled down them.

In 2022, a Saudi Arabian man who drove a rented Maserati down the steps claimed he was following his sat-nav. CCTV video of the incident showed the man getting out of the car halfway down the steps and holding his head in his hands while a Romanian woman he had met that evening began shouting.

The site has appeared regularly in films, including Roman Holiday in 1953, in which Audrey Hepburn eats an ice cream on the steps.

In 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One, Tom Cruise’s character crashed a Fiat 500 down the steps during a car chase. While some parts of the scene were shot on location, others were filmed on a set using a mock-up of the steps.

THE TIMES