Ponte Milvio, the cradle of the gesture

It was on this ancient bridge over the Tiber that the love-lock craze was born, even before Paris. A novel, a lamppost, a key thrown into the river: from Ponte Milvio, the gesture spread across the whole world. Padlove is what comes next. Your love lock lives here in both your names, on the map, without ever weighing on its lampposts.

The story of the place

Ponte Milvio is among the oldest bridges in Rome. It was here, close by, that the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge was fought in 312, a clash remembered for many centuries before lovers took over its railings. For generations, people crossed the Tiber here seeing it as nothing more than a way through.

In 2006, everything changed. Federico Moccia’s novel “Ho voglia di te” features two heroes who hang a love lock on the third lamppost of the bridge, then throw the key into the Tiber. The ritual immediately won over readers, who came to repeat the gesture. Ponte Milvio thus became the modern cradle of the love lock, before the trend reached Paris and the rest of the world.

Success had its downside. The lamppost, laden with ever more love locks, ended up bending under the weight, and the city had to step in. The vow remained sincere, but the ironwork could no longer bear it. Padlove answers this paradox: to carry on the gesture born here, without a single extra gram on Rome’s heritage.

Why seal your love lock here

• Seal your vow where the modern love-lock tradition was born, before every other bridge in the world.
• Join the story of Ponte Milvio without adding the slightest weight to its already weakened lampposts.
• Give your promise a love lock that lives on the map, in both your names, forever.

Continue the journey

• Pont des Arts — The bridge of lovers from all over the world, made eternal.
• Pont de l’Archevêché — The narrowest of Paris bridges, the widest for hearts.
• Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor — From the Musée d’Orsay to the Tuileries garden, a pas de deux.