Mamma mia! Vacationer fined for driving over Florence’s Medieval bridge Ponte Vecchio

It occurs to one of the best of us. One minute you might be busy navigating your means round a brand new metropolis, the subsequent, you might be driving over Florence’s oldest bridge earlier than getting caught by police. At the very least that’s what occurred to a person from California final week, when he tried to discover a parking area and as an alternative landed a €500 tremendous for driving a rented Fiat Panda over town’s Ponte Vecchio, or ‘the outdated bridge’. A Metropolis of Florence spokesperson informed CNN that the unnamed 34-year-old man was additionally fined for driving with out a global driver’s allow.

The long-lasting construction, which is managed by the Municipality of Florence, was accomplished in 1345 as a substitute for an earlier bridge, destroyed in a flood. It’s the solely Florentine bridge spanning the River Arno to have survived the Second World Warfare. Additional conservation measures designed to maintain the bridge in top-notch situation embody limiting retail models on the crossing to goldsmiths and artists. Final yr, the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, introduced that Ponte Vecchio would bear a €2m revamp.