The sounds of jackhammers, bulldozers and men shouting are familiar to many on the streets of Florence. Modern construction tools and machines are used alongside simple tools such as chisels and mallets. These older, low-tech tools are used to shape new stones in the same design as some of the oldest stone streets in the city.

Both new techologies and very traditional skills go into the reconstruction of one of Florence's main thoroughfares, Via Faenza.

The blend of old and new tools used to replace a street is emblematic of a city attempting to preserve its past while adapting to the demands of modernity. However, attempting to balance these demands leads to tests of patience for Florentine merchants.

"To do a thing in Italy you have to wait 20 years," according to Stefano Farina, a historian of Italian politics, military and economics.

The government has exemplified the 20-year threshold with its work on Via Faenza, a main artery in central Florence. "They [have needed] to do it in the 15 years that I have been here," said Marco Casi, who works at the Modabella Leather Factory on Via Faenza. He said the city did not begin work on the street until just five months ago.

Progress and innovation can be hindered by many factors, but a common theme is argument and indecision, Farina said.

Watch Florence's Via Faenza get torn apart . . . and put back together! A photo slideshow

"[There are] a lot of polemics in Florence," Farina said. "And no one is ashamed of this."

The delays can also be evidenced in the fight to build the Tramvia, an above-ground subway, Farina said.

The Tramvia will help ease congestion in the streets, he said, because the streets of Florence were made for horses and buggies, not for cars.

However, when this was first presented in 1978, Farina said that the idea was shot down due to pure politics.

Now, 20 years later, the debate has cropped up with a referendum on this issue. The referendum was defeated, but the decision was non-binding. Farina said that the mayor of Florence, Leonardo Domenici, has said he will build the Tramvia anyway if he is elected next year.

Meet some of the merchants who depend on Faenza's foot traffic.

Another project that has been contentious is expansion of the Peretola, Florence's only airport.

The airport authority wants to add a runway but expansion has been debated for more than four years, according to the The Florentine, a newspaper that serves English-speaking Florentines. Concerns were voiced by nearby business owners and by Florentines worried about the environmental impact. However, an agreement has been reached to finally build the new runway.

Just like with big projects such as the Tramvia, small projects in Florence can be held up. One such project was the replacing of stones in Piazza de Signoria. When these stones were moved from Piazza de Signoria in 1987, they were grey and circular. Many city-dwelling Florentines fought for red stones to be placed there instead. They said red stones matched a painting in San Marco of the burning of Savonarola in the piazza, Farina said.

After a year of polemics, the stones were replaced with grey stones.

As with Piazza de Signoria, construction on Via Faenza seems to matter to the people closest to it, mainly shop owners.

The torn-up street project is "very very bad," said Lastí Níngsih, about her workplace, the Oscuro Medioevo Florentino, a museum on Via Faenza. She said the museum has lost more than 50% of its clientele due to the construction.

Construction wreaks havoc with Faenza's pedestrian traffic, on which its merchants depend.

Casi was told that the construction would only last four months. It has been five and the street likely will not be completed until December.

Casi, like many of the shopowners on the street, said he hopes that even though business is suffering now, the construction will be worth it when the restored street is finished.

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