The River That Refused to Stay in Its Banks

In 1966, the Arno River in Florence, Italy, burst through every barrier the city had built over centuries. Floodwaters did not check credentials at the door of the Biblioteca Nazionale. They did not pause at the threshold of Santa Croce or ask permission before entering the basements where priceless manuscripts lay stored. The water went everywhere — into the workshops of goldsmiths and the apartments of washerwomen alike, into cathedrals and corner shops, soaking the velvet seats of the opera house with the same indifference it showed the wooden stools of a trattoria on the Via dei Neri.…