On occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the flood that struck Florence on November 4, 1966, the Franco Zeffirelli Foundation is commemorating the event with a documentary exhibition that highlights one of the most significant chapters of the Maestro’s civic engagement.

At dawn on November 4, 1966, the Arno River overwhelmed Florence, submerging its immense artistic heritage and bringing the city to its knees.
Franco Zeffirelli immediately understood that, alongside emergency relief efforts, something else — equally urgent — was required: to tell the world what was happening.
Within hours, he arrived in Florence with a RAI film crew and began documenting the devastation caused by the flood. The footage captured during those days still conveys the dramatic reality of a city transformed into an unreal landscape, where monuments, churches, museums, libraries, and homes lay buried in mud.
From that footage emerged For Florence — one of the most important documentaries ever made about a cultural catastrophe.
For Florence, it was more than just a documentary. It was, above all, a major international communication initiative—one that transformed images and words into a powerful appeal for solidarity, engaging governments, institutions, artists, and thousands of citizens in the effort to safeguard the city’s cultural heritage.

The exhibition presents a rich selection of original materials from the Zeffirelli Archive, many of which have rarely been shown to the public.
Through photographs, letters, documents, press clippings, and personal accounts, the exhibition reveals how Franco Zeffirelli turned the language of cinema into an extraordinary instrument of international solidarity, helping to raise global awareness about the tragedy in Florence and supporting the city’s reconstruction.

The special film For Florence will be screened throughout the exhibition.