American tourists mortified after realising huge mistake when Venice locals kept glaring at them

American travellers don't always have the best reputation in Europe but one US couple were caught out by a little known law on their trip to Venice.

There are plenty of laws that even the most studious of travellers might not be aware of, as things as innocent as holding a salmon suspiciously and annoying people with kites remain illegal in the UK.

Things get even more complicated when there's a language barrier to negotiate, which is perhaps one of the reasons why some Spanish areas are completely sick of their British visitors.

But in the case of Julia Latoff and her boyfriend, endurance athlete Mike Naccarella, it was something as simple as going for a run in Venice which nearly landed them in hot water, and not because they fell in.

Given we're at the end of a very hot summer, which has only been made worse because of the ongoing Super El Niño phenomenon, it's easy to understand why Mike decided to head for his run without a shirt.

Speaking to the NY Post, Latoff said: ““Running while we’re traveling is something we do to get to know the city and to sightsee.

Within the first five to 10 minutes, Mike noticed people looking at him and giving us glances. We knew something was off, but we weren’t sure exactly what it was."

Although they initially carried on with their run, it wasn't until a local man shouted that this wasn't a beach that they realised the lack of clothes might be the issue, but it was only after googling it that they realised it was literally a law.

The law states that the city of Venice prohibits bare chests and swimwear in public streets and squares, and visitors can be fined up to €250 (£214) for stripping down.

Fortunately, their friends were on hand to source Mike a new shirt to wear for the rest of the run but considering how many people love to walk around shirtless in this country when the sun comes out, it's easy to see how others might fall foul of this rule.

It was only introduced in 2018 as the city looked to reinforce a culture of respect surrounding the city’s religious landmarks, so it's probably not worth heading for a run in Vatican City either, as you'd imagine they'd have similar protocols in place.

Since social media is a toxic and horrible place, you won't be surprised to hear that Latoff and Naccarella got a huge amount of hate comments on their now viral video.

“I’m surprised at how angry people are, especially since we reconciled the situation immediately and our attitude was trying to be respectful,” said Latoff.

“People are just continuing to leave hateful comments about American travellers.

“Everyone has the right to travel and explore, and hopefully, everyone can learn from our lesson and make sure that they’re mindful of the culture.

“We live in New York City and regularly interact with visitors who don’t know the norms; instead of treating tourists with frustration or anger, I encourage people to treat them with kindness.”