Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio is one of Florence’s landmarks and certainly the most photographed bridge in the city. The most famous bridge of them all was built at the narrowest point of the Arno and is the only remaining one with houses and shops on it.

In part this is because something important was built on top of them: the Vasari Corridor. This “secret” passageway, built by Vasari for Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1565, links Palazzo Vecchio to Pitti Palace. In 1593, the jewelry stores that tourists so love were brought to the bridge on command of Ferdinando, the Medici heir who thought that the previous tenants – butchers – smelled too bad to have their shops right below his corridor.