Stock photography picture of The Ponte Vecchio in Florence Italy

AF9EMW - Royalty Free Caption The Ponte Vecchio in Florence Italy Description The Ponte Vecchio (IPA pronunciation: (Italian for Old Bridge) is a Medieval bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for having shops built along it. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewelers, art dealers and souvenir sellers. It has been described as Europe's oldest wholly-stone, closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge, but there are far older segmental arch bridges such as Alconétar Bridge. Believed to have been first built in Roman times, it was originally made of wood. After being destroyed by a flood in 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 meters (98 feet) the two side arches each span 27 meters (88 feet). Keywords ‘Ponte, Vecchio’,, bridge,, Florence,, Italy,, Travel,, landmark,, tourism,, vacation,, Europe,, holiday,, European,, Renaissance,, windows,, shutters,, structure,, building