For a few years it has become very fashionable to put padlocks on the bridges of the cities that are visited, writing on them your name and the date of the visit. It is something that couples do especially to leave a mark on their visit to any city. The origin of this curiosity is in Rome , specifically in the Milvio Bridge , the first in which they began to put padlocks.
The fashion for "The locks of love" began in 2006 after the publication of the book "I have desire for you", in which couples put their love locks on lamp posts, throwing the key into the Tiber River as proof of love. Everyone started putting them on one of the lampposts on the Milvio Bridge, and it was so successful that the weight caused it to collapse the following year.
A worldwide rage
From then on, they began to be put on the bridge, and there were so many that the mayor even said that anyone who was caught putting one would be fined, and even vigilance was put on . Anyway, people skipped the surveillance and the bridge became completely riddled with padlocks. That made the fashion spread to other cities, and today you can find padlocks on practically any bridge in any city.
Returning to the Milvio Bridge, which is the one that appears in the photo, last year all the locks were removed by order of the City Council since it was alleged that their presence meant a degradation of the bridge and that no matter how symbolic it was, it is very ugly when there are so many padlocks on top of each other and of different sizes. Nowadays, nobody puts padlocks on this bridge anymore since there is a strict surveillance, and every day it is checked to remove any that might appear.