Beloved tourist guide drops dead from working in sweltering temperatures in the Colosseum

 ROME – Giovanna Maria Giammarino, a 56-year-old tour guide, died Tuesday evening while carrying out her work at the Colosseum, in front of hundreds of tourists in shock, writes Il Messaggero. On Wednesday night the Colosseum lights were switched off in her memory.

 Giovanna suffered a sudden feeling of illness after climbing some stairs and collapsed unconscious on the floor of the amphitheatre. Rescue workers, who arrived on site promptly, were unable to save her. She died on site due to cardiovascular arrest, according to what the forensic doctors who intervened together with the carabinieri of the Piazza Venezia department attested.

 For 40 minutes they attempted every possible manoeuvre to save Giovanna Maria but there was nothing they could do. “I saw her in passing on Tuesday,” says Sarah, a colleague, “I had known her for years, she was always smiling: I'm shocked, on Tuesday it was very hot, it's not easy to take tourists around inside the Colosseum when the climate is scorching. I immediately thought that it could happen to me too. I could have had fallen ill too.”

 Giovanna Maria was born in Greece but had been working in Rome for years and was resident in Ciampino. “For her I was like a son, I am saddened. And still in shock. She had been unwell three days earlier,” says Matiur originally from Bangladesh and her colleague, “she had vomited and I asked her if she needed help, if I should to bring her some medicine but she told me she was fine and no longer had stomach problems.” Instead after a few hours Giammarino collapsed and she never woke up again. “I still can't believe it, I'm shocked ,” says Matiur. “She was a cheerful sunny person who loved my family and especially my son.”

 Among the first to spread the tragic news of Giovanna Maria's death was the Facebook group Tourism and Culture - Transparency and Legality, who pushed for the need for new rules to protect workers. Isabella Ruggiero, president of the AGTA, (the association of qualified tourist guides) also faces the problem and asks to establish set of guidelines for archaeological park. “It is necessary to include our profession among exhausting jobs, we are subjected to temperatures that are often prohibitive, that is, in summer they reach 40 degrees outside. The death of poor Giovanna Maria raises the need to change the opening hours of the Colosseum in summer, bringing it forward to 7 am.”

 The Colosseum park has expressed its profound agreement. “I express my deepest condolences for the tragic death of Giovanna Maria Giammarino, a tour guide who passed away while passionately carrying out her work at the Colosseum,” declares the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli. “A loss that strongly recalls the human and professional value of those who, every day, contribute to the protection and transmission of our historical and artistic heritage. As a sign of closeness and mourning,” he continues, “this evening [Wednesday night] the lights of the Colosseum will be turned off at 9pm. May her family and loved ones receive my deepest condolences, on my behalf and on behalf of the Ministry of Culture”, concludes Giuli.

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