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Photo of the Week: Feeling secure in Florence

04.10.2007

Florence_172Rev.jpg

That's a lot padlocks right there. David.byne took this photo in Florence, and he appears equally confused by them: "These padlocks seemed randomly attached to a signpost near the Ponte Vecchio in Florenece. Who knows why?"

So over to you, dear readers: Can anyone explain what the significance of these padlocks is? A safeguard in dangerous times? Or some bizarre tradition?

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Posted by dr.pepper 22:26 Archived in Photography

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Comments

Weird!!!

05.10.2007 by Sam I Am

I've heard two different versions of why they do this (and guessing both is wrong). One is for luck (security, safety etc) in the same way that in China/Japan/Korea etc, it is lucky to tie things to certain trees. The other explanation i've heard is that it is a kind of memorial, and used for closure and sympathy (not sure i believe this, but it was described in the same way that in the UK, you might lay flowers at the site of where somebody died). But whether either reason is even vaguely true, i have no idea

05.10.2007 by Gelli

Actually, couples engrave their initials into these locks, attach them to the gate, and throw the key in the Arno. This tradition seals their everlasting love. It became such a hit that it was recently declared illegal to attach your locks to the gate because every night the city would have to call a locksmith to go and cut all of them off to make room for tomorrow's couples.

03.04.2008 by sweneyb

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