ITALY: Bridge on the Arno

"The most beautiful bridge in the world," Florentines called it, and they never got over their outrage when, in 1944, the retreating Nazis blew up the Ponte Santa Trinita, along with four other bridges across the Arno. (Only the Ponte Vecchio was spared, because it was considered too fragile to be useful for Allied military vehicles.) Designed by

Michelangelo and built by famed Architect Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1569, the "bridge of the beautiful curve" had enchanted generations of Florentines with its unobtrusive elegance, its "mysterious arches" that followed no known geometric curve...

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