Short little morning adventure

Ponte Vecchio

Yesterday, I took a stroll throughout the city early in the morning before the whole city woke up with tourists.  Woke up to coffee, and a new discovery:  Oatmeal with Nutella in it.  It definitely hits the spot, and it's absolutely delicious.  One of the POI of this city is the Ponte Vecchio.  This has been rebuilt numerous times in the past due to major storms that has happened in the past.  But the most recent "historic" happening was during WWII, during Nazi, Germany's retreat.  All of the bridges were blown up and destroyed to prevent the Allies from crossing the river, however, Ponte Vecchio remained in tact. 

Walking across the bridge, there's a ton of jewelry shops, tourists, and street-shops trying to sell tourists little knick-knacks and etc.  But it's interesting to hear all of the different types of languages.  Apparently Florence is like Disney World to Europeans.  It's where many Europeans go to relax and go on vacation.  All the streets are swarming with people dragging luggage around.  At one point, I saw somebody riding a bike dragging luggage behind him, smart guy.

 This gate is around one of the statues on Ponte Vecchio.  Many people go out and buy locks, write their name along with their significant others, and lock it onto the fence.  Apparently this trend started not too long ago, but recently, authorities have made it illegal in order to do this because it's damaging the art.  Now, if somebody is caught putting a lock on the fence, they can be charged up to 50 Euro, no questions asked.  Sadly enough, as cool as this is, a local was walking around it with a large chain of keys and taking the locks off of it for his own personal gain.  What he was doing with them, I'm not sure.

I can't believe how large the city is, and how much food, shops, people, clothing, streets, and more it has to offer.  People have cars, but it's rare that they drive them.  Everybody walks.  As a matter of fact, Copenhagen, Denmark is creating a a bike-highway for everyone.  Very interesting!  Maybe we should do stuff like that!