Palazzo Vecchio

Sam Leidholt

Literature

C. Villa

April 22, 2013

Palazzo Vecchio

After eighteen hours of straight downpour in the entire region and an already impressively rainy winter, massive chaos ensued. Florentines had started to accept there was no avoiding their beloved Arno anymore. Many homes and lower lying areas were already filling. The city was continuing its voluntary evacuation, sure to become mandatory at any minute.

While many residents were either trying to grab their most prized possessions and flee or help friends and family do just that, Claudio had accepted his more important task of attempting to secure as much of the city's necessary documents and artifacts as possible. Because many of the other department heads were unable to reach the square, his task kept growing more insurmountable. Not only had he preemptively begun to prepare his department's offices for an evacuation, he now also taken charge of at least three other departments with which he worked closely with as their directors were unable to get near the city center.

Claudio had been so wrapped up in his work that he hadn’t realized the rain had finally ceased. Between flashbacks to losing his home as a child to the running water and hoping his beloved Palazzo Vecchio would somehow remain dry, he hadn’t noticed the water had already rushed the streets. The sand bag wall surrounding the building was holding strong. The water had started to recede thanks to the stopped rain.

As he stood on the balcony watching the foot of water sweep the streets, he gratefully realized how lucky he and the city were to evade a repeat of 1966. This time, the Arno had spared them the severity.