The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's English name was bequeathed by Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri",[1][2] from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time that the bridge was built,[citation needed] and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals.[citation needed] In addition, little could be seen from inside the bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows.[3][4]The 1861 opera Le pont des soupirs by Jacques Offenbach has the bridge as a setting.[citation needed]
The Bridge of Sighs features heavily in the plot of the 1979 Diane Lane film, A Little Romance. One of the characters tells of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever.
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