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The Legend of la BEFANA

Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday

The Grassina Passion Play

Gothic Dream

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Wish upon a star

Halloween

Bacco Artigiano at Rufina

And who was St. Zenobius?

A home from home through the year

More Tuscan history

The Scottish market

2006 sees the 40th anniversary of this terrible event

Retracing the flood in Florence
[Susan Glasspool]

New to Florence but too young to remember, you may not realise that the city was dramatically flooded on November 4th 1966. It caused terrible damage to the monuments, art works and books and the reaction worldwide brought thousands of young people, many of them students, like our readers, to lend a hand cleaning up the city. They were nicknamed the Mud Angels.
Many parts of the outlying countryside and other provinces in Tuscany suffered severe flooding at the same time. But the whole world was united in wanting to save Florence and its art works and the city was lucky, in its misfortune, to have such incredible support.
The anniversary will be over by the time you read this, but we would like you to perhaps look at the websites recalling it and when you walk around the streets, especially near the Arno, look out for the small, rather faded plaques that show the height the waters rose to. You will be impressed.
When you admire the Ponte Vecchio, remember that it is really a miracle that it is still standing, for it was battered and blocked up with trunks of wood, acting almost as a dam, and the waters swept through the little shops on top, virtually destroying them.
Visit the Santa Croce museum and see what happened to the Cimabue Crucifix. Almost intact before the flood, what remains of this splendid art work is the result of a brilliant restoration. Or go to the National Central Library, symbolic of the work carried out by the Mud Angels, who removed all the sodden and muddy books from the ground floor and the cellars, passing them from hand to hand for days on end. The job was made even more unpleasant by the fact that the mud was mixed with oil from damaged central heating oil tanks.

Another symbolic place for recalling the flood is the Baptistry, for the panels on the Doors of Paradise were nearly ripped of by the force of the water. It is impossible to mention everything as the entire centre and much of the surrounding countryside, was severely flooded and effected, but clearly it took a long time for all the buildings to be dried out and restored.

Believe it or not, there are still books, minor art works and furnishings damaged in the flood that are still awaiting restoration...


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