Birthplace of Michelangelo and home to untold masterpieces, Florence is a city for art lovers. But on November 4, 1966, the rising waters of the Arno threatened to erase over seven centuries of history and human achievement.

Now Robert Clark explores the Italian city's greatest flood and its aftermath through the voices of its witnesses. Two American artists wade through the devastated beauty; a photographer stows away on an army helicopter to witness the tragedy first-hand; a British "mud angel" spends a month scraping mold from the world's masterpieces; and, through it all, an author asks why art matters so very much to us, even in the face of overwhelming disaster.

Author: Robert Clark
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Published: 10/06/2009
Pages: 368
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.26w x 0.77d
ISBN: 9780767926492

About the Author
ROBERT CLARK is the author of the novels In the Deep Midwinter, Mr. White's Confession, and Love Among the Ruins as well as the nonfiction books My Grandfather's House, River of the West, and The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard.