Ponte Vecchio

Old Bridge is one of the symbols of the city of Florence. Crosses the Arno river in its narrowest point, where once there was a ford. There are reports of a bridge in the current location around 1177: studies have shown that the piers rest on very ancient ruins. The original bridge was swept away by the flood of 1333, to be rebuilt in 1345 by Taddeo Gaddi (according to Vasari). In 1442 the city authorities had ordered to the butchers to bring together their shops on the Ponte Vecchio, in order to remove as much as possible from the town the bad smell from the processing of meat: since then, the Bridge became the meat market, and the butchers had added small rooms jutting out of their shops, shored up with wooden poles. When in 1565 Giorgio Vasari was commissioned to build the "Vasari Corridor", in fact, to secretly connect Old Palace to Pitti Palace, he made a corridor that through the Uffizi Gallery, Lungarno Archibusieri and the shops on the left side of Old Bridge. In 1593, by order of Ferdinand I, the butchers's shops were replaced by those of the goldsmiths. The structure of the Bridge consists of three large arched crossings, with the passage flanked by two rows of shops obtained by the closure of the old arcades, which are interrupted in the middle to make room for two panoramic terraces: one to the east, surmounted by the Vasari Corridor; the west, with a bust of Benvenuto Cellini and fountain (work by Raffaello Romanelli, 1901), whose gate is used by lovers to hang padlocks symbol of love relationship: the padlock keys are then thrown in Arno, a tradition begun about twenty years ago by the military of the Academy of St. George to the Coast.