The Ponte Vecchio is almost poetry. For the beauty, for the views and above all for its history, its stories. Symbol of Florence, along with Brunelleschi's dome, its origin goes back to one of the deadly floods of the Arno, recorded in the curious year of 1333. On that occasion, the flood swept away with fury the bridge that crossed the city through the narrowest part of the river. But not only. It is remembered as the worst flood that the capital of Tuscany has suffered, with 300 deaths and countless damages. Such was the destruction that the cleanup work alone took half a year. The water reached Dantesque levels, reaching a height of three meters in the Palazzo Vecchio. Although the worst was yet to come.
Ironies of fate, on that same day, November 4, but in 1966, Florence would experience its last and catastrophic flood, even more intense but not as deadly. The new bridge, namely the Ponte Vecchio, which the authorities inaugurated in 1345, withstood the flood 633 years later. What's more: it has always resisted everything, even the withdrawal of the Nazi troops, becoming the only one that did not fly through the air on August 4, 1945.
After so many vicissitudes, the restoration announced just ten days ago, the first of its intense history, is more than deserved. The maintenance intervention will begin in October, will last three years and will cost two million euros, although the Council will only pay for one. The other will be in charge of an old Florentine family, the Antinori, which was already one of the most important in the city when the famous bridge was built. First, as silk merchants and from 1385 as winegrowers.
Since then, 26 generations have dedicated themselves to wine production. And in fact, this million dollar contribution to the city aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the commercialization of Tignanello, the winery's flagship. The Habsburg-Lorraine made them marquises and here they are still, residing in the Renaissance palazzo Antinori, in the square that bears their surname, with a buchette of wine on the facade, those windows in the shape of a Chianti fiasco that turn the nose of many of the palaces of the old Florentine nobility. So let's toast with this wine to the health of a Ponte Vecchio that, renovated, will continue to be a privileged witness to the history of Florence.
