Part 2: Saints and Sinners. Early Christianity and the Flail of God.

This series of podcasts is taken from my book ‘The Ponte Vecchio. The Old Bridge of Florence’. It’s about a Medieval stone bridge that spans the river Arno, linking the ancient heart of the city of Florence on the north bank of the river, with the district of Oltrarno on the south bank, and it is a bridge with a remarkable history.

The name Ponte Vecchio means ‘Old Bridge’ in Italian, and this world-famous Florentine landmark is certainly old, but it is by no means the first bridge to stand on this site, nor even the first regular means of crossing the river Arno here.

The story of a river crossing on this site stretches all the way back into prehistory, so whilst the title of of this series might suggest it is about just one bridge, it is actually about a whole series of bridges that were built on, or close to, the site occupied by the Ponte Vecchio today, in the heart of the beautiful city of Florence. These were bridges sometimes destroyed by the hand of man, and sometimes by apocalyptic natural forces. This is the story of those bridges, and the colourful daily life of the city, as lived around, and even on them - an ‘everyday’ story of murder, flood and war.

Part 1: The Mists of Time. From Prehistory to the Romans.

This series of podcasts is taken from my book ‘The Ponte Vecchio. The Old Bridge of Florence’. It’s about a Medieval stone bridge that spans the river Arno, linking the ancient heart of the city of Florence on the north bank of the river, with the district of Oltrarno on the south bank, and it is a bridge with a remarkable history.

The name Ponte Vecchio means ‘Old Bridge’ in Italian, and this world-famous Florentine landmark is certainly old, but it is by no means the first bridge to stand on this site, nor even the first regular means of crossing the river Arno here.

The story of a river crossing on this site stretches all the way back into prehistory, so whilst the title of of this series might suggest it is about just one bridge, it is actually about a whole series of bridges that were built on, or close to, the site occupied by the Ponte Vecchio today, in the heart of the beautiful city of Florence. These were bridges sometimes destroyed by the hand of man, and sometimes by apocalyptic natural forces. This is the story of those bridges, and the colourful daily life of the city, as lived around, and even on them - an ‘everyday’ story of murder, flood and war.