Tourists continue to deface historic landmarks in Italy.

Italian police on Monday detained a 19-year-old French tourist after she carved a love heart with her initials and those of her boyfriend into the façade of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Police intervened after an employee of the 12th-century landmark observed the tourist using her serpentine bracelet as a sharp tool to scratch into the stone on the seventh tier of the famed tower in Tuscany.

The tourist was taken to the police station and admitted her responsibility, telling officers that she engraved the initial of her first name and that of her boyfriend in the heart drawing.

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She now faces charges of aggravated damage to a building of historic and cultural importance, an offence that can carry a penalty of up to one year in jail or a fine of around €2,000, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

The tourist reportedly expressed her surprise that what she had done was a crime, telling officers: "There were other things written. I didn't think I was doing anything wrong."

In 2019 two American brothers, both medical doctors in their 30s, were caught using a coin to carve the name "Jeffy" into the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

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Earlier this summer the Colosseum in Rome suffered a spate of vandalism, most notoriously by a tourist who smiled at the camera as he was filmed carving "Ivan+Hayley" into a wall of the amphitheatre.

After police tracked him down and informed him that he risked up to five years in jail and a fine of €15,000, the tourist begged for forgiveness and claimed he was unaware the Colosseum was an ancient site.