Humor on the Ponte Vecchio

 Here’s a little humor I experienced before my cappuccino and climb to the most awesome view of Florence this morning. Another early start, this time, out in the sun by 7:30. Again I found myself crossing the Ponte Vecchio on my walk to Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato al Monte, the church on the mount.

   But first a brief pause on the bridge! The other day I hadn’t noticed the love padlocks, all clean, shiny, understated, that were attached to the fence around the statue of the bust of Cellini (1500-71), Italian goldsmith, sculptor, draftsman, soldier, musician, and guardian of the bridge.

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I’d seen padlock bridges in Paris, Dublin, and even Washington DC, so I wasn’t particularly startled until I read the sign attached to the railing:  

“It is not allowed to hang locks to the railing.
     As it is ruled by the municipal police, Art 112
    Fine 160.00 Euros to transgressors"

That’s $209 for attaching a padlock. Really?

     Security is excellent around here, and I’d just as soon have the officials keep it that way. Arresting a couple for declaring their love by attaching a padlock would definitely be a distraction. They can’t be serious about this, can they? And then I look up to see the security police sitting in their van. Were they waiting to arrest me? No, of course not; I travel alone.   

 

 I understand that it is very time consuming, and thus expensive, to remove each of those padlocks. Maybe they should just leave them on, forever, or at least as long as the Ponte Vecchio remains standing. Dante wrote about it, and thanks to Nazi commander Gerhard Wolf, it was the only bridge the Germans did not bomb as the retreated north.