It is the last in a line of bridges that stretches back to Roman times, but the version you see today dates from 1345 due to several disastrous floodwaters. In 13th century traders, butchers and fishmongers were conducting business on the bridge. Look up, over the arcades in the middle of the bridge, there run the Vasari’s Corridor, commissioned by Cosimo I of the Medici in 1565 to pass unobserved from Palazzo Vecchio (the cityhall) to Palazzo Pitti (his residence). From now on shops were to be reserved for the comparatively “clean” trades of the goldsmiths and dealers in precious stones, a state of affairs that continues to this day.