The old bridge over the Arno

Today, shops for tourists line the Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, across the Arno in Florence. (Don Dale photo, 2006)

On a trip to Florence, everybody wants to see Michelangelo's David, Filippo Brunelleschi's dome atop the city's Gothic cathedral, Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti's golden doors of the Baptistery of St. John, and the art treasures of the Uffizi museum.

But another of the city's beloved treasures is the Ponte Vecchio (that's Italian for old bridge), which crosses the Arno river.

The bridge is lined with shops, and if you've got the big bucks, you can buy jewelry, art and expensive souvenirs. Or you can stop in the middle for a free, wide-open view of the city's skyline up- or down-river. The view to the west is spectacularly beautiful at sunset.

Nowhere in Florence is the Southern European sun's famed yellow glow more evident than on the Ponte Vecchio. It's the light that so many Renaissance painters tried to capture, that particular deep and rich yellow radiance that is emblematic of place.

The Ponte Vecchio is usually crowded. Florentines whose business takes them across the Arno use the bridge, but the majority of those strolling its nearly 300-foot length are tourists, many of them North American or Asian. At either approach to the bridge, predictably, you'll find both overpriced cafés and tourist shops. I picked up a tacky plaster cast of David at one of the latter.

We had a late lunch one warm afternoon - coffee and Parma ham on slices of cantaloupe -- at a café on the north bank near the bridge and spent at least 90 minutes doing what I often think I like best about traveling -- people-watching. On the corner opposite the café was a souvenir stand selling "Firenze" banners and buttons, and across from that was an African man with a sidewalk array of messenger bags that he said were made from "good-quality leather." (Anybody in commerce near the Ponte Vecchio knows at least some English.)

The Ponte Vecchio speaks eloquently of antiquity, medieval times, the Renaissance, and today. The piers were made of stone by the Romans. Over the centuries, the bridge itself has been rebuilt -- more strongly and more elaborately each time. It was swept away by a flood in 1117, but it was the only bridge in Florence spared by Hitler during the German retreat in August 1944.

Above the shops on the bridge -- yes, there is a second story -- is a passageway connecting the Florence town hall with the Pitti Palace on the opposite bank. Cosimo I de Medici had it built in 1565 so he wouldn't have to mingle with the common folk on the bridge below.

I wondered why there are a proliferation of padlocks in place on the bridge's railing and on the fence around the bridge's statue of artist Benvenuto Cellini. Somebody told me that the padlocks are a modern oddity. Young couples ceremoniously lock them there to signify their eternal bonds. The city used to have to remove thousands from time to time. Now there's a sign that says there will be a 50-euro fine. But some young couples still do it anyway.

Yes, the Ponte Vecchio is definitely a place to let Florence seep under your skin for a few hours.