Ponte Vecchio ... The Place for Golds
The Ponte Vecchio is a famous medieval bridge over the Arno in Florence and it is noted for having shops (mainly jewellers) built along it. It is Europe's oldest segmental arch bridge according to the facts.
Believed to have been first built in Roman times and it was originally made of wood. After being destroyed by a floodin 1333 it was rebuilt in 1345, this time in stone. Most of the design is attributed to Taddeo Gaddi. The bridge consists of three segmental arches, the main arch has a span of 30 m, the two side arches each span 27 meters. The rise of the arches is between 3.5 and 4.4 meters, and the rise-to-span ratio approximately 1:5.
It has always hosted shops and merchants (legend says this was originally due to a tax exemption), which displayed their goods on tables after authorisation of the Bargello (a sort of a lord mayor, a magistrate and a police authority).
It is said that the economic concept of bankruptcy originated here: when a merchant could not pay his debts, the table on which he sold his wares (the "banco") was physically broken ("rotto") by soldiers, and this practice was called "bancorotto" (broken table; possibly it can come from "banca rotta" which means "broken bank"). Not having a table anymore, the merchant was not able to sell anything
Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, Florence
The shop is selling pure gold with high quality
The gold shop along the street on the bridge
High quality of golds
Solid Gold 18kt...any comment?
posted by Love Is Love @ 11:28 PM
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