One of the three bridges in the world occupied by shops, and Florence's oldest Spared destruction from the Germans in WWII because of its age, it has also withstood floods and tourists. The dazzling goldsmith shops you see today are a far cry from the stinking noisy butchers and black smiths that originally occupied it. Above the shops is a hidden walkway linking the Palazzo Pitti to the Uffizi once allowing the Medici's to avoid roughing it with the locals.