Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
D3
Ponte Vecchio
( B)
Florence's iconic bridge has twinkled with the glittering wares of jewellers ever
since the 16th century, when Ferdinando I de' Medici ordered them here to replace the of-
ten malodorous presence of the town butchers, who had an unfortunate tendency to toss
unwanted leftovers into the river.
The first documentation of a stone bridge here, at the narrowest crossing point along the
entire length of the river, dates from 972. 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 to being destroyed again. The bridge as it now stands dates from 1345 and was
the only one saved from destruction at the hands of the retreating Germans in 1944. What
you see above the shops on the eastern side is the infamous
Corridoio Vasariano
rather than straight through - the medieval
Torre dei Mannelli
at the bridge's southern end.
BRIDGE
Palazzo Pitti
MUSEUM
(
www.polomuseale.firenze.it
; Piazza dei Pitti; Ticket 1 adult/EU 18-25/EU child & senior €8.50/4.25/free,
Ticket 2 €7/3.50/free, Ticket 3 €11.50/5.75/free; 8.15am-6.05pm Tue-Sun)
This vast palace was be-
gun in 1458 for the Pitti family, rivals of the Medici. Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo ac-
quired it in 1549 and it remained the official residence of Florence's rulers until 1919,
when the Savoys gave it to the state.
8.15am-6.05pm summer, shorter hours outside summer, closed 1st & last Mon of month)
hosts tempor-
ary exhibitions in its elaborately frescoed audience chambers.
Raphaels and Rubens vie for centre stage in the enviable collection of 16th- to 18th-
century art amassed by the Medici and Lorraine dukes in the 1st-floor
Galleria Palatina
include Filippo Lippi's
Madonna and Child with Stories from the Life of St Anne
(aka the
Tondo Bartolini; 1452-53) and Botticelli's
Madonna with Child and a Young Saint John
