In the early morning of November 4th 1966, the Arno River broke over its banks and flooded Florence, devastating the Renaissance city’s artistic and historical treasures.
Approximately 600,000 tons of mud, rubble and sewage submerged Florence. It is estimated that 14,000 movable works of art and 4 million books and manuscripts were damaged.
Churches, museums and libraries, all filled with works of art, were inundated with mud, some to a height of more than 3 meters.

In the centre, the first part affected was the area nearby the Santa Croce Church, then the river broke also the left bank flooding the Oltrarno quarter. By 9 am the water reached the Duomo. Luckily, being November 4th a National holiday, many people were out of the city or at home and thus were not hit by the water while at work or walking on the streets.

Young people, arriving from across the continent, immediately began showing up to help. They became known in Florence as the “angeli del fango” (the Mud Angels).
Ted Kennedy, brother of John Fitzgerald and, at the time Senator of the United States of America, made a plea to mobilitize people to support Florence.

With the combined effort of hundreds of Italian and foreign volunteers, many invaluable pieces of art, submerged by the mud, have been rescued.
From a cultural standpoint, the most significant damages occurred to the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (National Central Library), located on the river side nearby Santa Croce Church, and to the underground warehouses of the Uffizi Gallery.

In 2016, for the 50th anniversary of the flood, the reinstallation of Vasari’s Last Supper (1546) was finally unveiled at the Museum of the Opera of Santa Croce.
This five-panel painting, that was immersed in water for almost 12 hours, is possibly the most famous work to have be severely damaged and saved.

At the corner of Via dei Servi and Piazza Santissima Annunziata, stands a red brick Palace facing the square, Palazzo Grifoni – Budini Gattai. Looking at the Palace from the square, on the right side of the building, you may notice a window which is always kept open.
According to a 16th century legend, a member of the Grifoni family went off to war leaving his (just) married wife. The beautiful lady, grieved over the departure but, still hopeful to see again her beloved husband, spent her days looking out of that window. The man never came back and the she died a widow.

After her death, and, as the window was closed by her relatives, strange and mysterious events happened inside the room. Paintings started falling off the walls, objects began to fly and furniture kept on shaking.
As soon as the window was reopened, everything went back to the normality.
An additional twist makes this legend even more interesting. In the middle of the square, there is an equestrian sculpture of Ferdinando I de’Medici looking towards the window. Was the young lady his secret lover?
As for all the legends, nobody knows exactly and, it’s up to you to choose your favourite ending.

Walking around the centre of Florence, it’s easy to get lost admiring the masterpieces of the Renaissance and to overlook the tiny “Buchette del vino”. The buchette del vino (wine windows) are small windows emerging from the façades of ancient palaces in the centre of Florence. Through them, over the course of three centuries, millions of bottles and glasses of local wine were bought and sold.
The origins of the buchette del vino go back to the last decades of the 16th century when, do to significant changes in the European politics and economy, many rich Florentine families had to put aside the banking and textile activities, off which they had made their fortunes, in order to reinvent themselves as wine producers. The buchette del vino became a great way to sell directly from producer to consumer, without middlemen.

As of today, there are still about 150 buchette del vino around the city centre but, almost all of them, are either closed up or converted into mailboxes or doorbells.
Also our beloved Palazzo Guadagni has a buchetta del vino, in our case, it is carved on a side door on Via Mazzetta, at the old entrance of the Thouar library. Today, unfortunately, this one as well has been closed up and it is not in use anymore.
However, our Loggia Roof Bar, at the top floor of the Palazzo Guadagni, is a good option if you look for a glass of wine when in Santo Spirito.

Behind the unassuming facades of Via de’ Serragli lies a vast and secret garden, the Giardino Torrigiani. With nearly seventeen acres (7 hectares) hidden in the heart of Florence, this is the largest privately-owned garden in Europe situated within a historic centre.

Designed at the height of the Romantic movement in the early 19th century, this idyllic oasis of green unfolds around the original 16thcentury villa and includes rare tree species, wide English-style lawns, herb and vegetables gardens, sculptures and a beautifully restored greenhouse.

The garden design is laden with complex Masonic symbology, climaxing with an elegant neo-Gothic tower spiralling to the heavens. Almost twenty-two metres high, the tower houses a collection of astronomical instruments, a library, and a terrace for studying the sky. In the centre of a flowerbed there is a group of classic sculptures by Pio Fedi’ including a statue of Seneca, representing a young Pietro Torrigiani, and a marble column dedicated to the great botanist and mycologist, Pier Antonio Micheli.

In the end of the 19th century, the Giardino Torrigiani has also been used for the games of the Florence Football Team, the most ancient football club in Florence. The club was founded in 1898 by Piero Torrigiani, at that time Mayor of Florence, and was made up of British and Americans living in Florence, together with few members of the local aristocracy. Today the Torrigiani Malaspina and the Torrigiani Santa Cristina families are still committed to preserving and maintaining this rich historical park.