Florence marks 60 years since 1966 Arno flood with Mattarella at ceremony

A night of rising water

Sixty years after the disaster, Florence is marking the flood that struck the city on the night between 3 and 4 November 1966. ANSA attributes the scale of the event to three factors that combined: a large amount of rain over 48 hours, warm and humid air from the south that stayed over the same areas, and soils already saturated by rain in the preceding weeks. Paola Salvati, a researcher at the Institute of Geosciences of the National Research Council, said these conditions produced an intense hydrological response in the river basins, made worse in Alpine areas by melting snow.

“These conditions brought about a particularly intense hydrological response in the basins.”

La Repubblica's account places the Mugnone stream's overflow at 3:00 a.m., which submerged the Cascine park. Shortly afterwards the Arno broke its banks at Rovezzano, San Salvi and Varlungo, sewers burst and electrical substations failed, cutting power, phones, running water and gas. The Arno also invaded the National Central Library and Santa Croce. At 7:26 a.m. every electric clock in the city stopped. Because 4 November was the Armed Forces holiday, most residents were at home when the water arrived.

Toll and damage

The sources do not agree on the death toll. Fanpage and La Stampa cite 36 victims, Il Fatto Quotidiano counts 35 deaths in Florence plus 12 more elsewhere in Tuscany, and ANSA gives 134 victims for the event as a whole, although its own caption cites 36. Fanpage reports that the last victim was only recognised in 2023, 57 years later, and that the number of people missing was never established. Il Fatto Quotidiano puts the damage at 18,000 flooded homes, 4,000 families left homeless, more than 1,500 damaged artworks and over a million books and historical volumes submerged. The same article notes that Giorgio Vasari's Last Supper, damaged by mud in the Basilica of Santa Croce, was restored only in 2016.

Homes flooded18,000

Families left homeless4,000

Artworks damaged, more than1,500

Homes flooded

18000

Families left homeless

4000

Artworks damaged, more than

1500

Data from the article text

The commemoration in Florence

According to Rai News, Mattarella attended the national unity and armed forces celebrations on the morning of 4 November 2026. The programme included a 9:00 Mass at the Basilica of Santa Croce presided over by Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, followed by a procession to Ponte alle Grazie, where a wreath is to be laid in the Arno. The ceremony in the Salone dei Cinquecento at Palazzo Vecchio is set for 16:30 in the presence of the president. Mayor Sara Funaro called the flood a wound that is still open, but also a great lesson.

“The whole world rushed to Florence, and the first volunteers were the Florentines themselves.”

Asked about her grandfather, Piero Bargellini, who was mayor at the time, Funaro said he was remembered as a Florentine among Florentines who listened to residents' needs. Funaro described the Florentines who came out to clear mud as the first 'angeli del fango', and said they still arrive first when difficulties strike. Erasmo D'Angelis of the Earth Water Agenda foundation, which organises the event with the Stampa toscana association, said a welcome lunch will be held at the Mercato centrale for the volunteers.

Remembering the young volunteers

Caterina Guagni, a writer and teacher, has published 'Due angeli del fango. Firenze, 4 novembre 1966' with Gallucci Bros. The novel follows Anna, the daughter of a Florentine shopkeeper, and Salvo, a Sicilian tour guide, who meet days before the flood and become volunteers. Guagni told Adnkronos that the disaster gave a generation that had inherited the weight of the Second World War a chance to redeem itself.

“That catastrophe was an opportunity for redemption for an entire generation.”

Fanpage also recounts the memory of a woman who was seven at the time and lived on the third floor. She recalls that on the evening of 4 November her parents put her and her nine-year-old brother to bed fully dressed, shoes on, because they feared the water would reach the third floor.