The 60th Anniversary of the Florence Flood: What's On, and a Rebuilt Florence Flood Site

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 marks sixty years since the Arno flooded Florence. The city is marking it with a ceremony in Palazzo Vecchio attended by the President of the Republic, a wreath laid in the river, and a run of exhibitions that stay open through November and beyond. If you are in Florence this month, here is what is worth seeing - and why our sister site, Florence Flood, has just been rebuilt from the ground up.

What happened in 1966

On the night of November 3-4, 1966, after days of heavy rain, the Arno broke its banks. By morning the historic center was under water, mud and heating oil - up to about 6.7 meters (22 feet) deep in Santa Croce. Thirty-five people died in the city and province, about a million volumes at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale were submerged, and works including Cimabue's Crucifix and Vasari's Last Supper were badly damaged. Volunteers from some seventy countries, the angeli del fango or mud angels, came to dig the city out, and the rescue that followed shaped modern art and book conservation. The full story is on Florence Flood.

November 4: the main events

• 9 a.m. - Mass in the Basilica di Santa Croce, in the neighborhood that took the worst of the water.
• 10:15 a.m. - Procession to the Ponte alle Grazie, with a wreath laid in the Arno at about 10:30 a.m. in memory of the victims.
• 4:30 p.m. - The official ceremony in the Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, with President Sergio Mattarella. Expect security restrictions around Piazza della Signoria that afternoon.
• 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. - The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Piazza dei Cavalleggeri, the library most associated with the mud angels, stays open late with guided visits, music and talks.
• 11:30 p.m. - On television, Bargellini, il sindaco dell'alluvione, a new documentary on Piero Bargellini, the mayor who led the city through the disaster, on LA7 (in Italian).

Exhibitions open after the 4th

• Firenze per il mondo, il mondo per Firenze - Palazzo Vecchio, Sala d'Arme. The main anniversary exhibition, on the international response to the flood. Free; through November 22.
• Per Firenze - Fondazione Franco Zeffirelli, Piazza San Firenze 5. On the fundraising documentary Zeffirelli made in the weeks after the flood, with photographs he took in the first hours. Free; November 4-29, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Photographs of the streets after the flood - Palazzo Medici Riccardi, from the photographer Giorgio Lotti and the Italian Army. November 5-17.
• RI-EMERGERE 1966-2026: L'alluvione di Firenze in Archivio - Archivio di Stato di Firenze, on the decades-long recovery and restoration of the State Archive's flooded records. November 4 through February 6, 2027.
• Le forme del fango ("The Shapes of the Mud") - Accademia di Belle Arti, opening November 4 at noon.

Also this week

• November 3-13: Angeli del fango, a new Teatro della Toscana production about the volunteers, in the Sotterranei of the Teatro della Pergola.
• November 5, 3:30 p.m.: The Mud Angels Legacy, a meeting at the University of Florence's Aula Magna, Piazza San Marco 4, with the American universities that had students in Florence in 1966.
• November 7, 9 p.m.: Mozart's Requiem in the Basilica di Santa Croce, performed by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The complete day-by-day calendar, including the conferences and concerts not listed here, is in The 60th Anniversary of the Florence Flood on Florence Flood. The official program is at firenze2026.it.

Florence Flood, rebuilt for the 60th

Florence-On-Line's sister site, Florence Flood, was started in 2006 for the 40th anniversary, so this November is also its twentieth year. It grew as a blog, which meant its best material was scattered across years of posts. For the 60th it has been rebuilt as a reference on the flood, in six sections:

• The Flood - what happened on November 4, 1966, and why
• The Mud Angels - the volunteers and what they saved
• Art Restoration - Cimabue, Vasari, the National Library
• Color Photographs - how Joe Blaustein's slides came home
• Films - Zeffirelli, the restoration film, color footage
• Books - what to read

The color photographs are the heart of the site. Color images of the flood itself are rare, and Joe Blaustein's slides - some of the only ones known - reached the city archive of Florence after he found the site, and later became the book I colori dell'alluvione / The Colors of the Flood. Every earlier article, from the 2006 anniversary photos to the 2013 exhibition of Blaustein's pictures, is still there on a new All Pages and Articles page.

Were you there?

Much of what is on Florence Flood arrived because someone who lived through it got in touch. If you were in Florence in November 1966 - as a resident, a student or a volunteer - and have photographs, film or memories to share, see the About page on Florence Flood.

Schedules are from the Comune di Firenze's official program of October 28, 2026 and may change; check firenze2026.it before you go.