Yes, "Ponte" means "bridge" in Italian. No, there is no bridge here anymore. But in medieval times there used to be a river near here (the Padenna), and it used to have a bridge, and the bridge was called il Ponte Marina and that, dear readers, is why the road that we are looking at, which crosses the top of Via Girolamo Rossi where I am, is called the Via Ponte Marina.

If you have visited my San Gimignano gallery you may remember the stone towers that were erected there as symbols of power and wealth (and places to hurl stones onto your enemies from) by various families in the middle ages.

The same thing happened in Ravenna. This one, the 39 metre tall Torre Civica was erected in the 12th century and was originally called "dei beccai" (of butchers [1]) because of the butchers who were located underneath it.

([1] That's according to the Ravenna tourism authority (from which I sourced some of this information), although that is not the modern word for butcher (macelleria) and I can't find it used that way in the dictionary. Still, they are likely to know this far better than me. Also "beccare" does have an informal meaning of "to catch" and it's likely that 12th century butchers had to do more than just process meat, but to source it as well.)

It was renamed Torre Civica because by the end of the 13th century it had passed from private hands into the hands of the city to be used as a watch tower, occupied by a guard who would sound the alarm in the event of fire or flood or to summon the town council.

At the end of the 13th century all noble towers and fortifications were ordered demolished by the Papal rector, but this one escaped because it had a civic rather than a private function by that time.

This is not as the tower would have appeared when first built though. In 2000 part of the top had to be removed to prevent collapse. Even now one can note the steel bracing around the lower floors. The ancient Padenna river may no longer be visible but its legacy lingers. The land beneath the tower is sliding, as a result and the tower is taking on an inclination.

Enjoy it while it lasts; I'd hate to think that these are the last of its 8 or 9 hundred years of life.