Among many other great reasons to visit the romantic Italian city of Venice, be sure you and your beloved take a gondola ride under the Bridge of Sighs on the Rio di Palazzo. The legend is that if you kiss at that tender moment, your love will be eternal.

The Italians call it the Ponte dei Sospiri, it was built in 1602 and looks almost exactly today as it did then. Although it is just one of hundreds of bridges in the waterlogged city, the Bridge of Sighs is most popular because of its own sad legend.

It is said that the bridge got its name because prisoners were marched across it on the way to dungeons and worse in the Doge’s Palace on the other side. All they could do was let out big sighs of agonized regret, knowing it would be their last moment of freedom, maybe forever.

So, if you and your loved one ride a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs, unless you want to risk being forced to swim back to your hotel, make sure your exhalations will be ones of tender passion, not agonized regret.