“The true cause of the collapse of the Colossus, a cause that even today threatens so many other famous monuments with extinction, was pointed out by Ennio Flaiano in his Diario notturno. ‘It is generally believed that the Colossus of Rhodes collapsed in an earthquake. This is not the whole story. The Colossus of Rhodes collapsed owing to the verbiage that tourists, in addition to their names, scratched into the pedestal and which, increasing over the centuries in number and vulgarity, undermined its resistance. The earthquake achieved only that little that remained to be done.’ ”

(Aldo Buzzi, p. 13 in The Perfect Egg and Other Secrets, trans. Guido Waldman.)