The Bridge of the Four Heads

This is the oldest bridge in Rome still in use, and the only one that was never rebuilt. It was laid down in 62 BC by Lucius Fabricius, the official in charge of the roads, who had his name chiselled into the stone four times, large and repeated as if he wanted to rule out any chance of being forgotten.

The nickname comes from the two marble pillars on the parapet, each carved with two faces that look out in both directions. That is why Romans call it the bridge of the four heads.

It has stood here for nearly two thousand years and has survived every flood that swept away the bridges around it, partly because its arches are wide enough to let the water through rather than hold it back.

On the far side, at the edge of the Jewish quarter, the story of the ghetto begins, and that has a walk of its own.

We head back to the Trastevere side and follow the embankment upstream, with the river on our right.