Remarks
Two bowsprit-shaped piles support three low arches surmounted by two and three-storey workshops, dominating the river, which are shored up by wooden consoles known as sporti. Nowadays, the narrow shops are exclusively occupied by jeweller's shops, selling goods ranging from cheap items to high-class luxury jewellery. But they were once butchers' and tanners' shops: the butchers could throw their waste into the river and the tanners could draw water for their hides. These unsanitary and malodorous activities were prohibited in 1593 by Grand Duke Ferdinando I who replaced them with the cleaner and more profitable (tax-wise) jewellers' and goldsmiths' shops. In the middle of the bridge is an esplanade without shops containing a 19C bronze bust of Benvenuto Cellini, the most famous goldsmith of all time, whose humble successors are the craftsmen-jewellers with shops on the bridge today. There is a fine view of the city from this point.