Ponte Vecchio, the awaited book by Chris Dobson

FLORENCE, ITALY – The long-awaited new book by Chris Dobson The Ponte Vecchio – The Old Bridge of Florence will be out on December 1, 2015.

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, and not even the first regular means of crossing the river here: the story of a river-crossing on this site goes all the way back into prehistory.

So whilst the title of the book 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.

These were bridges sometimes destroyed by the hand of man, and sometimes by apocolyptic natural forces. This book is the story of these bridges, and the colourful daily life of the city, as lived around, and even on these bridges – an everyday story of murder, flood and war.

Chris Dobson is very grateful to the museums, archives and individuals who have made this such a fantastic project to work on. His narrative charts some 3,000 of history, and includes a star cast of characters, from Julius Caesar, through Dante Alighieri, to the Medici, and even Andrea Boccelli, as well as more unwelcome appearances by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

The story of the bridges here is the story of the city itself, and the some of the key moments in that history have been played out on the Ponte Vecchio. And there is always the river Arno, in all its moods. The book finishes by bringing the reader right up to the present day, and even takes a peek at the future. It is the first book to chart the long history of these bridges. This eBook is lavishly illustrated throughout.

You can order the book on the Dobson’s website