The Lungarni: the bridges walk
The embankments end to end, four bridges, and the river light that made every painter want Florence. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Ponte alle Grazie
Start on the easternmost bridge, the one with the cleanest open view — no shops, no crush, just the Arno running west toward the others. Look downstream and you can read the whole walk ahead. Best as the sun starts to drop behind the hills.

2. Lungarno degli Archibugieri
Walk the north embankment under the Uffizi's river arches, where the *Corridoio Vasariano* runs overhead toward the bridge. The traffic is close but the river is closer; keep to the parapet side and watch the water change colour as the light goes.

3. Ponte Vecchio (from the embankment)
Don't cross it — read it. From the Lungarno you get the postcard the bridge can't give you when you're on it: the stacked shops, the little overhang, the *Corridoio* threading along the top. The best angle is from a few metres east, looking back.

4. Ponte Santa Trinita
The most graceful bridge in the city, its three shallow arches a Renaissance marvel of engineering, blown up in 1944 and rebuilt from stones dredged from the river. Stand at the centre for the framed view of *Ponte Vecchio* upstream — this is the one painters chose.

5. Lungarno Corsini
The grand palace-lined stretch on the north bank, where the eighteenth-century facades take the last of the sun straight on. Slow down here; the river is wide, the light is long, and the far bank glows. The end is one bridge ahead.

6. Ponte alla Carraia
End on the western bridge, looking back east at the whole chain you've walked, the dome catching the last colour behind the rooftops. Cross to the Oltrarno side for a drink as the lamps come on; this is the river at its best, and you've earned the view.

The Lungarni: the bridges walk