Every year, thousands of people from all over the world visit piazzale Michelangelo to take photographs of the spectacular view it gives of the bridges over the Arno river and Florence’s major landmarks, from Forte Belvedere to Santa Croce basilica, encompassing Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, the Uffizi, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Bargello museum and the spire of the Badia Fiorentina as well as the hills of Fiesole and Settignano in the background. Tourists and locals have the Florentine architect Giuseppe Poggi (1811–1901) to thank for this breathtaking and unforgettable vista. As the main artifice of the radical redevelopment designed to enlarge and aggrandize the city so it could better perform its role as capital of the recently united Kingdom of Italy, Poggi’s massive urbanisation project took him five years, between 1865 and 1871, to complete at a cost of 30 million lire raised through a public loan to be repaid within 50 years.
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