Ponte Vecchio

Lonely Planet review

The first documentation of a stone bridge here, at the narrowest crossing point along the entire length of the Arno, dates from 972 AD. The Arno looks placid enough but when it gets mean, it gets very mean. Floods in 1177 and 1333 destroyed the bridge, and in 1966 it came close again.

Newspaper reports of the time highlight how dangerous the situation was: one couple who owned a jewellery shop on the bridge described the crashing of the waters just below the floorboards as they tried to salvage some of their goods. Carabinieri (military police) on the river bank excitedly warned them to get off, but they retorted that the forces of law and order should do something. They did get off in the end, fearful they'd be swept away. Those jewellers were among several on the bridge who inherited the traditional business in the 16th century when Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici ordered a replacement to the rather malodorous presence of the town butchers. The latter tended to jettison unwanted leftovers into the river. The bridge as it stands was built in 1345, and those of us who get the chance to admire it can thank…well, someone…that it wasn't blown to smithereens in August 1944. Retreating German forces blew up all the other bridges on the Arno, but someone decided that sending the Ponte Vecchio to the bottom would have been going too far! Instead they mined large areas on either side of the bridge, evident today in the ugly architecture that replaced the rubble. It was on the Oltrarno side of the bridge that Buondelmonte dei Buondelmonti was assassinated beneath the statue of Mars that stood here then, sparking the conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines that subsequently tore the city and Tuscany apart. Mars was washed away by the 1333 flood. Among the buildings to survive the Nazis' mines are two medieval towers. The first, Torre dei Mannelli, just on the southern end of the bridge, looks very odd, as the Corridoio Vasariano was built around it, not simply straight through it as the Medici would have preferred. Just south of here across Via de' Bardi as your eye follows the Corridoio you espy Torre degli Ubriachi (Drunks' Tower). On the intersection of Borgo San Jacopo and Via de' Guicciardini you will see an unassuming fountain, the Fontana di Bacco (Bacchus Fountain). Giambologna's Ercole col Centauro Nesso (Hercules with the Centaur) statue was here until transported to the Loggia della Signoria.