ROME - - The authorities running the Colosseum have opened an investigation against the company managing the tickets.

 After the three tourists who recently defaced the walls of the Colosseum, a new alarm has been raised over the online scalping of tickets for visits to the Flavian Amphitheatre.

 According to those working for the Colosseum, tickets are frequently bought in bulk from other platforms and resold at up to three times the original price. 

 These are often platforms which offer additional services such as travel packages, audio guides and guided tours in combination with the Colosseum ticket.

 Consequently, on the morning of July 18, officials from the Authority and the Special Unit of the Guardia di Finanza carried out inspections at the premises of Cooperativa Culture (CoopCulture) and Musement S.p.A. (both tourist agencies).

 Systems used on such websites do not allow individual customers to purchase a ticket at the ordinary price, Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reports. 

 Even the director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, Alfonsina Russo, remarked that it is “almost impossible to buy them [the tickets] on the official portal.”

 This knot is still to be unravelled.