Legend has it that, around 290 BC, Roman officials sailed to Epidauro in Greece.
They consulted Aesculapius, the god of medicine, about pestilence that had broken out in Rome. The myth says that a serpent, a symbol of the god, left the Greek temple and boarded the Roman vessel. When the vessel returned to Rome, the serpent climbed onto the Tiberina Island and settled there. The Romans built a temple on the island, dedicated to the god, whereupon the pestilence disappeared. Since then, the island has maintained a medical tradition.
Ponte Rotto, Ponte Fabricio and the island
Ponte Fabricio from the Lungotevere