In the seven centuries since the Ponte Vecchio was first built in Florence, Italy, the bridge has watched the city changing around it, surviving floods, fires and the Nazi invasion in World War II. Now, the famed bridge itself is getting a two-year makeover, at the cost of about €2 million, to restore it to its former glory, the city of Florence and the Marchesi Antinori winemakers announced. 

It marks the first such restoration and cleaning of the bridge, though it has undergone regular maintenance and several renovations to ensure its stability, the city’s culture ministry added. “This is a historic project because Ponte Vecchio has never had a restoration intervention of this technical complexity,” Florence’s mayor Dario Nardella told reporters on Thursday.