When the river Arno was fordable ..

one on the side of Signa, the other on the side of Carmignano. These two villages still face each other from both sides of the river Arno. But once they were even closer. In Camaioni, near Artimino, there was no bridge, or rather there was one in fact, but it was a railway bridge (although sometimes some people used it, passing very close to the rails). And to cross the river Arno they used a boat attached to a rope which went back and forth between Poggio alla Malva and Brucianesi. Until the fifties the river often became fordable during the summer. Dredging to collect sand and digging the bottom came later. And for long stretches, from the front of Poggio alla Malva to Signa, the Arno ended almost dry.

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