Florence, Italy, Spring 1967 by Joyce O'Donnell

From MemoryArchive

Who: Joyce O'Donnell
What: Floods of 1966
When: Spring 1967
Where: Florence, Italy

I was 14 years old and a freshman in high school when I took my first trip to Europe on a school sponsored trip. I recently began to think about that trip in light of Hurricane Katrina. In 1966, there was a terrible flood that devasted much of Florence. I can still remember in the Spring of 1967 walking through several of the churches that were under restoration. The most striking feature was the water marks on the interior walls of the insides of many of the churches and cathedrals. It was hard to imagine that water had not only come that far into the city but into the buildings as well. Heaters were running in most of the churches that we entered in an effort to dry out the buildings so artists could begin much of the art restoration work. But a city that was founded by Julius Ceasar in the 1st century BC still stood. I can only imagine the other floods or disasters that may have engulfed this city through it's long life.