Florence, Antinori alongside the Municipality for the restoration of the Ponte Vecchio

The fiftieth birthday of the wine that marked the Renaissance of Italian winemaking, the Tignanello by Marchesi Antinori first released on the market in 1974, brings a very welcome gift to the Municipality of Florence. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Florentine wine group, in business since 1385, has decided to contribute to the conservation and restoration project of one of the city’s symbolic monuments, the Ponte Vecchio, through the Art Bonus. Antinori will donate 1 million euros, equal to 50% of the overall cost of the intervention.

The project developed by the Municipality involves the restoration of the facades, arches, pillars, parapets, rostrums – to eliminate stains, algae, encrustations – and the recovery of the paving of one of the most famous bridges in the world, completed in 1345, “spared” by the Nazi-Fascist bombings in 1944, heavily damaged by the flood of 1966 and today in need of make-up (it has no structural problems).

«This operation will forever link two international symbols – said the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, presenting the operation in Palazzo Vecchio – and will consolidate the relationship between the great families of the city and the historical-artistic heritage. Tignanello has produced a revolution in Italy and in the world, and is to the world of wine what Brunelleschi’s Dome is to architecture.”

Piero Antinori, present in Palazzo Vecchio with his daughters Albiera, Allegra and Alessia and with the managing director Renzo Cotarella, said he was moved and honoured: «We are debtors of this city – he explained – and we want to give back to Florence a part of what he has given us over the centuries. We would not be, even as a company, what we are today, if we had not had the fortune of operating in Florence. Being Florentine gives added value, and also an edge from a commercial point of view: when people in the world ask me where I come from and I say “from Florence”, my credibility and authority automatically increases.”

The restoration work will be carried out in three phases: next autumn work will be done on the paving (without closing the Ponte Vecchio); in summer 2025 and summer 2026 we will operate from the Arno with the construction site mounted on barges to clean up pylons, elevations and shoulders.