The bridge that survived 1333

In November 1333 the water swept away almost every bridge in Florence, and this one was the only survivor. Back then it carried chapels and little shops, along with hermit cells where women had themselves walled in to live in seclusion.

The river kept coming back. The chroniclers record serious floods in 1557 and 1844, with dozens of smaller ones in between, because after a wet spell in the Apennines the Arno has to cope with vast amounts of water in a very short time.

The bridge you cross now only dates from 1957. Its medieval predecessor survived six centuries of the river and still fell in August 1944, when the retreating troops blew up every bridge except the Ponte Vecchio.

From the head of the bridge we walk a little way back into the centre, as far as the first street that leads away from the river.