One of the Eternal City's oldest bridges has this summer become the focus a grand romantic ritual that has seized the imagination of hundreds of couples from Rome and abroad.
Lovers testify to their everlasting love by attaching a chain and a small padlock to a lamp-post on the northern end of the Ponte Milvio Bridge. They write their names on the lock in felt-tip pen and then throw the keys into the River Tiber.
Performing this rite guarantees that two people will remain together forever, according to a new urban legend that has been spread by word of mouth.
Lara, a 16-year-old Roman schoolgirl, recently dragged her reluctant boyfriend to the bridge so that they could make love vows. After a little persuasion, he eventually consented to follow the procedures.
"Some of my friends at school told me about it so I persuaded him to come and see what it's all about," she said. "He's not really the romantic type but there's a remedy for everything and I so brought along our padlock anyway".
The symbolism of the lock is heightened by the place where the ritual takes place: on a bridge - representing the joining of two worlds - and in Rome - a city which is supposed to be eternal.
Lucia, a local woman who works in a bar near the Ponte Milvio bridge, said she frequently found herself explaining the ritual to visitors of all ages and nationalities who stop by to ask where they can buy padlocks.
"Last week there was an Australian couple here, both about 60 years old. They were so sweet," she said.
The Ponte Milvio bridge was built in AD 109 and, standing on a key route into Rome, was the site of fierce battles in ancient times. It was rebuilt several times over the centuries, acquiring watchtowers and a triumphal arch. It is now a footbridge.
So far, city authorities have done nothing to stop the new tradition which has grown up there and the original 'lamp-post of love' is now so covered in hundreds of chains and locks that visitors have had to start on a new one. But if things go the way they did on a bridge in Florence, they may soon have to act.
A statue on Florence's famous Ponte Vecchio also became the focus of a similar lover's rite last year and a team of metal cutters spent weeks removing the 5,000 locks that had accumulated on it.
This spring railings were put up around the statue and council officials told police to hand out 50-euro fines to defiant couples who insisted on declaring their love in metallic terms.
But the determination of lovers has proved hard to beat and even today locks still appear intermittently on the railings, despite the frequent police patrols.
