The Florence Flood

Here is an article about the Flood on the mayor's website: Firenze ricorda l’alluvione di 45 anni fa (Italian only!)

Archive link for this entry: Firenze ricorda l’alluvione di 45 anni fa | Comment

The 45th Anniversary of the Florence Flood of 1966 is today. It is a cool gray day here in Florence with rain in the forecast, and I am not sure what if anything is planned by the city this year. We are going to take a walk into the center and see if any ceremonies are happening, etc.

If there is anything going on I will get some photos and/or video and post it later in the day. I will also be posting a second album of Mud Angel photos later today or in the next few days.

Archive link for this entry: 45th Anniversary of the Florence Flood of 1966 | Comment

A rare screening of Franco Zeffirelli's only documentary film--a heartfelt call to action showing the effects of the 1966 flood that devastated Florence, Italy, and rallied art lovers worldwide--will be the centerpiece of a program hosted by the University of Maryland Libraries and the National Gallery of Art.

Florence: Days of Destruction will be shown at the National Gallery of Art, 4th and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., on Saturday, November 5, at 3:30 p.m. The event marks the 45th anniversary of the flood.

Produced by the famed Italian director in the weeks following the flood, the documentary urged support to help rescue Italian works of art. Actor Richard Burton, who was working in Rome as the disaster unfolded, narrated and appeared in the film and appealed for aid.

The University of Maryland Libraries hold the only known copy of the English-language version of the film in the United States. RAI, the national Italian radio and television company, makes the black-and-white Italian version available on its website. (read more: http://www.lib.umd.edu/Zeffirellifilm.html)

Archive link for this entry: University of Maryland shares rare Zeffirelli film; Remembers 45th anniversary of Florence, Italy, flood | Comment

I was very honored to get an email, nearly two years ago, from Mary - a real "Mud Angel" - who offered to send me her photos to post here on Florence Flood. It has taken way too long to do this, but here they are - a real treasure trove of people coming together to save some of the treasures of Florence - specifically books in this case. The photos here are actually from February 1967, a few months after the flood - this description is from Mary:

"...I was in Florence working on the books from the National Library that were brought in from the tobacco barns in the countryside. 

I was there at least a week and we worked every day at Fort Belvedere, primarily scraping mud from the pages that had been unbound by the Italian students, packaging them up & lowering them down for transport to the railway station for washing.

The people I was working with were all sorts (students, airline stewardesses on layover, etc.) but primarily decisions were made by the British bookbinders.

The weather was good enough that we sat outside for lunch and were enthralled by the descriptions of the problems they encountered "the last time we rebound the Book of Kells!!"

(This is the first half of the photos, I will be posting the rest in another album closer to the 45th anniversary of the flood on November 4th, 2011)

Archive link for this entry: Photos from a Mud Angel | Comment

The 44th Anniversary of the flood seems pretty quiet in Florence this year. I did not even notice the usual posting of pictures in shops, etc. as there seems to be each November 4th. Maybe with the "crisis" no one wants to remember! There was a ceremony in Piazza della Repubblica:

Archive link for this entry: 44th Anniversary of the Flood of 1966 | Comment

A lot of the photo sites we have linked to over the last couple of years are now gone - here are a couple of live ones:

Florence flood from Florin.ms

Florence flood photos from About Florence

Archive link for this entry: Photos of the Florence Flood of 1966 | Comment

Seems like there is a new book out (November 2009) that we somehow missed - "Conservation Legacies of the Florence Flood of 1966":

Archive link for this entry: Conservation Legacies of the Florence Flood of 1966 | Comment

Well - I guess 43 is a quiet one. I had totally forgot about the flood this year, and I didn't notice any of the usual activity around town (I was sick for a couple of days - probably would have picked up on something if I was out and about more). Anyway - the date was yesterday. Maybe on the 45th there will be more activity (like there was on the 40th year).

Archive link for this entry: The 43rd Anniversary of the great flood of Florence | Comment

Here is an article weaving the recent tragic earthquakes in L'Aquila with the flood of 1966:

Many will remember the Florence flood of 1966. Once the waters receded and the mud remained, thousands went to Florence to help. I was sent by my parents to volunteer. I was basically a kid who helped carry things and acted as a gofer. I later learned that I was technically a "mud angel." I had been a witness and, in my small way, I helped. But, perhaps of greater importance was that I became totally convinced that I would try in my career to help keep great works of art safe.

Archive link for this entry: A Family's Loss Leads to Life as a 'Mud Angel' | Comment

I can't find much news at all about the flood in English. I guess 42 is not a big deal. Of course it is pouring here in Florence today. Here is a slide show I just found on YouTube:

Archive link for this entry: 42nd Anniversary of the Flood of 1966 | Comment

A new review out of Dark Water, in the Economist:

THERE are, writes Robert Clark, two concepts of the legendary city on the banks of the Arno in northern Italy. One, called Firenze, is populated by the proud, hard-working people who live there. The other, known to many as Florence, is home to the world’s greatest concentration of sublime works of art. Both are susceptible to terrible flooding—and November is the cruellest month. The river Arno’s first great flood happened on November 4th 1333; there were 3,000 deaths and the reason given was the sinfulness of man. On November 4th 1966 another great flood inundated the city; 33 people died and the blame fell principally on Enel, Italy’s largest power company.

More here.

Tomorrow is the 42nd anniversary of the flood. We have had some rain here in Florence recently (finally!) to remind us, but the event seems to passing this year without much fanfare. I am sure there will be some remembrances held in town - maybe at the Palazzo Vecchio, etc. I will try to find some local news as I can't scrape anything up on the web at the moment.

Archive link for this entry: Angels of mud | Comment

Random House was kind enough to put us in touch with Robert Clark, author of the new book "Dark Water". He answered a few of our questions below by email:

Florence Flood: How long were you in Florence researching the book and how did the grant process come about?

Robert Clark: I was in Florence, living in the Piazza del Carmine for most of two years. As I said (in the book), I'd gotten the fellowship before I came, and the book came, sideways as it were, as a result.

Continue reading "Interview with "Dark Water" author Robert Clark" »

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There is a new book to be released on October 7th about the 1966 flood of Florence and the aftermath of that fateful event. We were lucky enough to receive an advance copy and I am happy to say that if you are interested in the flood enough to have visited this website then you have to have a copy of this book: Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces. It is remarkable in its detail and scholarship and brings the events and the people involved to life like nothing else I have read. We will posting a more in depth review soon, as well as an excerpt from the book, and even an interview with the author. For now, you can pre-order a copy from Amazon.com.

Archive link for this entry: Dark Water by Robert Clark | Comment

Google Scholar is a specialized search engine from Google that searches scholarly texts, professional journals, research papers, etc. Here is a search for the 1966 Florence Flood. This is a pretty interesting resource but unfortunately it seems that most of this material must be paid for to actually view in its entirety, on the sites listed by Google Scholar all you get are abstracts (mostly). Still - it is a good starting place to at least find relevant materials, titles, etc.

Archive link for this entry: Scholarly Articles about the Arno Flood of 1966 | Comment

This is an interesting clip from YouTube that is a mix of some contemporary docudrama looking stuff mixed in with some vintage film of the 1966 flood and work of the mud angels. I am not sure where it was taken from. If you can shed some light on the origins of this please let me know in the comments.

Archive link for this entry: Some more Florence Flood video | Comment