Ponte Diavolo

Even in Britain, the story is told of bridges having been built with the 'help'

or connivance of the Devil, who exacts his 'fee' with the the soul of the

first to cross the bridge when it's complete. Various tricks are then played

upon him by the locals, the solution here, at the site of the Ponte Diavolo

at Borgo a Mozzano on the road between Lucca in Tuscany and the ski

slopes of the Appenines, was to send over a dog. There is, of course,

no record of how the dog felt about it.

This particular bridge, only open now to foot traffic, takes you from an

unremarkable town on the one side, to, well, nothing really on the other,

apart from an excellent pizza restaurant. But it's a wonderful example of

surviving mediaeval bridge-building, presumably built high enough to allow

sailing vessels on the R. Sèrchio to pass underneath.

Even in Britain, the story is told of bridges having been built with the 'help' or connivance of the

Devil, who exacts his 'fee' with the the soul of the first to cross the bridge when it's complete.

Various tricks are then played upon him by the locals, the solution here, at the site of the Ponte

Diavolo at Borgo a Mozzano on the road between Lucca in Tuscany and the ski slopes of the

Appenines, was to send over a dog. There is, of course, no record of how the dog felt about it.

This particular bridge, only open now to foot traffic, takes you from an unremarkable town on

the one side, to, well, nothing really on the other, apart from an excellent pizza restaurant. But

it's a wonderful example of surviving mediaeval bridge-building, presumably built high enough to

allow sailing vessels on the R. Sèrchio to pass underneath.

Ponte Diavolo, Tuscany