The tourist who defaced the nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome says he wasn't aware of the monument's age

• A tourist carved "Ivan+Haley 23" into the nearly 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome.
• The man was identified as Ivan Dimitrov, and he faces fines of up to $16,000 and five years in jail.

A tourist who sparked outrage for defacing a wall of the Colosseum in Rome said in an apology letter that he wasn't aware of the monument's age.

The tourist — who was identified as Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old fitness instructor living in Bristol, England, according to The Guardian — was seen using a key to carve "Ivan+Haley 23" into the nearly 2,000-year-old Roman structure in a video originally shared to YouTube.

Italy's culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, then shared the footage on Twitter on June 26 and said he hoped the vandal would be "identified and sanctioned according to our laws," according to a translation by CBS News.

The Guardian reported that it took five days for the police to find Dimitrov, who was traced by the Italian police to England.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, Dimitrov could face up to $16,000 in fines and five years in prison.

Dimitrov has since written an apology letter to Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, and the prosecutor's office, which was shared in Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper on Wednesday.

"Through these lines, I would like to address my heartfelt and honest apologies to the Italians and to the whole world for the damage caused to an asset which, in fact, is the heritage of all humanity," he wrote in the letter.

Dimitrov also said in his letter that he wasn't aware of the ancient monument's age or the "seriousness of the deed committed."

"It is with deep embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened did I learn of the antiquity of the monument," he wrote.

Dimitrov's lawyer, Alexandro Maria Tirelli, told Il Messaggero that "the boy is the prototype of the foreigner who frivolously believes that anything is allowed in Italy, even the type of act which in their own countries would be severely punished."