Arco della Costa, Verona

The Arco della Costa (Arch of the Rib) stands as a prominent archway situated between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori. In times when Venice held sway, this passageway served the purpose of enabling magistrates to travel from their abode, the Domus Nova, to the court within the present-day Palazzo della Ragione. This route spared them the need to traverse the city's main thoroughfare, thereby reducing the risk of encountering potential bribe-givers or individuals with malicious intent.

The nomenclature of this arch is intertwined with an object suspended from its pinnacle: a bone, thought to be a whale's rib. Installed during the mid-1700s, as depicted in a contemporary print, this object has given rise to diverse conjectures regarding its true nature. Some speculate that it could be a bone from an ichthyosaur, while others hold beliefs that it might be the "rib of the devil," a relic purportedly obtained from Crusaders during the battle of Lepanto in 1571. This notion finds support in the presence of a similar bone within the Cathedral.

Alternatively, historical accounts propose that the rib might have been affixed by the local apothecary shop as a means of attracting customers. In the medical practices of that era, powdered whale bone was believed to possess potent curative properties.

The legend enveloping this object possesses a distinctive quality: it asserts that the rib will descend when an individual of genuine integrity and a virtuous heart passes beneath it.