The female office worker who stunned tourists on Sunday by swimming naked in Rome's famous Trevi fountain says she now regrets her unprecedented exploit.
Roberta, 40, who said she took the plunge because it was so hot, instantly became a national news item thanks to the photos taken of her by onlookers with mobile phones.
"It was stupid and I'm sorry. Now I just wish people would forget about me," the Milanese woman told Italian dailies, declining to give her surname.
Roberta, who now risks being fined for public indecency, appeared surprised and rather scared by the attention her behaviour had aroused.
As she emerged from the waters on Sunday however she seemed supremely unconcerned, telling the policemen that were urging her out that "the water belongs to everyone".
Roberta is only the latest person to make a media splash by frolicking in the waters of the Trevi fountain. But she is believed to be the first one to jump into the water naked.
Swedish screen diva Anita Ekberg started the fashion for frolicking in the Renaissance fountain by doing so in the most famous scene of Federico Fellini's 1960 cinema classic La Dolce Vita. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer did it in 1995 in an advert for Valentino.
Keen to have her friends film her in the same glamorous act, a buxom young British woman did it early one summer morning last year and was severely scolded by a policeman.
Roberta, who was on holiday in Rome with friends on Sunday, swam about in the water and lazed on the sun-drenched white marble for about 15 minutes before police ordered her to dress and then led her away.
The crowds of tourists visiting the elaborate Renaissance fountain applauded, cheered and immortalised the scene with their mobile phone cameras.
The pictures were soon flying around the Internet and video footage was shown in national TV news. On Monday morning practically all Italian newspapers gave a page to the story.
