Ponte Pelvo over the Varaita River near Bellino, Piedmont (Italy)

Vois ces vierges, là-haut, plus blanches que les cygnes, 
Assises dans l'azur sur les gradins des cieux ! 
Viens ! nous invitons l'âme à des fêtes insignes, 
Nous, les Alpes, veillant entre l'homme et les dieux.

Des amants indiscrets l'abîme nous protège ;
Notre front n'a rougi qu'aux baisers du soleil, 
Et les rosiers du soir sur notre sein de neige 
Répandent seuls l'ardeur de l'ambre et du vermeil.

Excerpt from Symphonie Alpestre

Victor de Laprade, 1812-1883

Ponte Vittorio Emanuele and Ponte Umberto I crossing the River Po in Turin (Italy)

The Po, that, rushing with uncommon force,
O’ersets whole woods in its tumultuous course,
And, rising from Hesperia’s watery veins,
The exhausted land of all its moisture drains.
The Po, as sings the fable, first conveyed
Its wondering current through a poplar shade:
For when young Phaëton mistook his way,
Lost and confounded in the blaze of day,
This river, with surviving streams supplied,
When all the rest of the whole earth were dried,
And nature’s self lay ready to expire,
Quenched the dire flame that set the world on fire.

Po, the River

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39–65 A.D)

Ponte della Gula over the Mastallone creek near Ravallo, Piedmont (Italy) in a photomontage

  “Dall'acqua alfin corrosa, la rocciosa
montagna fendesi. Nella gula vetusta
ancor più angusta la valle striscia.
Giù, giù, quasi nascoso e fragoroso,
via corre limpido ridendo 'l fiumicello
in qualche bello specchio perlaceo.
Su, tra gl'opposti monti, due gravi ponti
s'inarcan penduli: l'un, né ricordi assorto,
sospira 'l morto passato e tacesi;
L'altro operoso addita l'alacre vita
de' novi secoli.”

Pietro Strigini, italian poet,

about the Ponte della Gula