If you were a “Mud Angel”, you can expect a special welcome back to Florence for the 50th anniversary of the 1966 flood.
Firenze Convention & Visitors Bureau has set up a website to provide discounted hotel reservations and restaurants, from November 2 to 6, 2016, to those who helped the city in its time of need. You can also call +39 055/2988135 from Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm or email fcvb@conventionbureau.it for further information.
On November 2 and 3, at Tuscany’s regional headquarters at piazza dell’Unità 1, a welcome point will be set up for Mud Angels, with a welcome kit to Florence, organized in collaboration with the Civil Protection of Florence and the Tuscan Reclamation Consortia.
The 50th anniversary of the flood will be a time to promote and share research, plans, interventions and events that enable us to learn from other cities that have experienced severe flooding in order to prevent future calamities and understand best practices to protect individuals, the arts and culture, and the environment. For news, videos and events related to the 1966 flood, check out the official website toscana.firenze2016.it, managed by Fondazione Sistema Toscana, in collaboration with the Comitato Firenze 2016 and in partnership with The Florentine. Also active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@comunefi @intoscana @FSToscana), as well as on You Tube (Toscana Firenze 2016). The official hashtags are #alluvione50, #arno50 and #angelidelfango.
Official events dedicated to Mud Angels
November 4
9am, in the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio, a city council meeting will be held with Mud Angels in attendance. A Mud Angel procession will take place directly afterwards with speeches made by Mud Angels, as well as a previously unpublished Franco Zeffirelli interview and two songs composed for the occasion by Giuseppe Lanzetta with an orchestra. The ceremony will end at approximately 1pm. Open to all, although you will be asked to show the badge distributed in piazza dell’Unità on November 2, 3 and 4.
11:30am, a Mass in the basilica of Santa Croce celebrated by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori.
1pm, a small procession will reach Ponte alle Grazie to lay wreaths in memory of the victims of the flood.
During the day, a stamp dedicated to the Mud Angels will be officially presented in Palazzo Vecchio’s Sala d’Arme.
3pm, the relocation ceremony of the restoration of Vasari’s Last Supper in Santa Croce
5pm, the official ceremony will be held in Palazzo Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento.
6:30pm, the world premiere of the new documentary “Dopo l’alluvione” in the Salone dei Cinquecento.
8:30pm, a torchlight procession will begin at the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte and end in piazza Santa Croce in memory of the same procession organised on November 4, 1967. Mud Angels and the general public are invited to participate in the vigil.
November 5
The “Safe Arno. Engineering, investments and construction plan” will be presented in Palazzo Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento.
November 6
9:30am, opening of an exhibition on floods in Tuscany at the headquarters of the Regional Tuscan Council (via Cavour 2-4).
11:30am, at Teatro Verdi (via Ghibellina 99), a meeting on the theme “Civil protection and volunteering today”.
If you are a Mud Angel and have memories and old photographs to share of the 1966 flood, please write to us at redazione@theflorentine.net.
