Ponte Vecchio is probably the most around the world celebrated bridge in Florence: the modern-day architectural structure we can see today including 3 stone arches, and followed in 1565 to a old wood bridge built in the ancient Roman times.

The very first wooden building dates back to 972 and was smashed by a flood in Florence in 1117. The most stunning architectural part is surely an opening midway of the bridge that provides a sensational view of the river Arno and its coastline (The coast it’s pretty visible, since there’s not a great deal of water in the river!).

The Bridge

Ponte Vecchio is Europe’s earliest wholly-stone segmental arch bridge. There are three arches, the main arch of 30 meters, and the side ones of 27. The Medici household, in 1953, restricted butchers from selling in Ponte Vecchio, hence imposing the bridge self-respect; the butchers were rapidly changed by gold merchants.

The Shops and the Vasarian Corridor

Today, the bridge stages various jewellery stores trading antiquities and gold and silver choices. Above the shops runs the Vasary Corridor, a long passage integrated in 1565 for order of Cosimo I De’ Medici Duke of Florence, which crosses the suspension bridge and connect the Uffizi Gallery and Palazzo Pitti.

Ponte Vecchio, throughout World War II, has actually been the only Florence Bridge not destroyed by the Nazis throughout the retreat in the August of 1944; but the Arno flood, the among 1966, seriously harmed the bridge and the jewellery shops.

Ponte Vecchio is actually the most evocative route you can take in Florence historical centre: probably among the most romantic bridges in the whole world.

The legend tells that if you lock a padlock and then you toss the key in the water, fans can reach immortal love! I don’t know if it holds true, but it’s actually impressive …