Daunts Bookshop sends me an email each week with their top book choices. Usually, I can refrain but occasionally I press the buttons, as happened this time. This year anything with Florence in the title was going to attract me as I was fortunate enough to visit the ‘Flowering City’ in June. The beautifully designed cover, however, was rather ominous and it became clear that the book was concerned with the appalling flood that totally devastated the city in November 1966.
The author, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor, was an American university teacher who, widowed and retired, decided to move to Florence. She was 63 years old. She lived in the kind of pensione that we are familiar with from the film ‘Room with a View.’ Sadly, on the whole, this sort of accommodation has for the most part disappeared, being replaced by apartments and small hotels. Kathrine’s rooms were on the Lungarno, maybe embankment is the best translation here, and so she looked straight out onto the River Arno.
This book is her diary of the events from early November 1966 stretching into the few months ahead. It is the work of an outsider looking in but one who is educated, concerned and who wants to feel at one with the population of Florence.
On Friday 4th November 1966 the Arno broke its banks and turned from a benign, green, smooth stretch of water to a brown, raging torrent carrying trees, cars and copious cans of oil before it, crashing into ancient bridges and flooding deep into the city. Some parts of the city lie well below the level of the Arno and were obviously the worst hit. Visiting the Santa Croce and queuing for tickets last June we noticed the mark on the outside wall, about 16 feet high, that showed where the water reached when the flood happened. It was quite difficult to believe.
I don’t remember much of that event of 1966 being a little too young to be interested in the news and of course communications were not what they are today. However, as I read this book, that is written with great compassion, I had the strange experience of seeing it visually portrayed on the television today. Of course, I am talking of the devastating flood in Valencia in Spain. The parallels are many: the inhabitants complaining of lack of warning and of insufficient help from the authorities, the events taking place at exactly the same time of year and the amazing hordes of young people who arrived and lined up to help in whatever way they could.
In Florence these young people were called the mud angels and on the whole they were employed in the museums, churches and galleries clearing up, moving and cleaning works of art, mainly renaissance works of art. They came, eventually, from all over the world but mainly America, Britain and Germany. Those people who still had accommodation to offer gave these students a bed and if they could also a hot meal. Some stayed for months.
This heartwarming event, finding something good in an otherwise ghastly situation makes the book worth reading. The author focuses on the resilience and courage of the Florentine people and the help that neighbours offered to each other. Eventually of course help and assistance did come from all parts of Italy and from a combined Anglo-American group formed by the consulates of those countries. The author writes that, as an American, she was frequently asked by artisans who had lost absolutely everything, particularly in that low lying Santa Croce area: ‘Will the tourists come back? Will they ever come back?’ She tells them that the visitors will return and of course she was right. I don’t know how many years it took for there to be some sort of normality but most people in that ticket queue I was in were totally unaware of that watermark on the church wall and I suspect would be amazed to hear of the events of November 1966. Of course, there is one huge difference between the events of Florence and Valencia: in 1966 nobody would have been blaming climate change or even using the phrase.
I bought this book from Daunts but reading the colophon I wish I had bought it straight from the publishing house. The Manderley Press is small, based in south London and came into being just a few years ago. How encouraging and affirming to see a new venture brought to life in the wake of the pandemic years. It is named for the house in du Maurier’s Rebecca and focuses on out-of-print or forgotten books that were inspired by a city, building or landmark. The cover artwork is obviously seen as important and the quality of the paper is luxurious.
This would make a delightful Christmas gift for anyone interested in Italy, particularly so for a recent visitor to this most beautiful Tuscan city.
I wish you all a Christmas stocking full of great reading, Very best wishes.