Michelangelo-inspired cardboard bridge floats above Rome's Tiber river

A view shows 'The Farnese Bridge', a participatory monumental cardboard installation by French artist Olivier Grossetete, over the Tiber river in front of the Palazzo Farnese, the seat of the French embassy in Italy. Photo: AFP

An illuminated 18m long cardboard bridge suspended by three large white helium balloons is floating above Rome's Tiber river, bringing to life a project imagined but never realised by Michelangelo.

Pope Paul III commissioned the artist to create a bridge connecting the Palazzo Farnese, a 16th Century family palace that now hosts the French embassy to Italy, with the gardens of a villa on the other side of the river.