WLF6 – Guided tour in Florence (with landslides, of course)

NEWS received from
Samuele Segoni & Emanuele Intrieri (University of Florence, Italy)

Dear LandAware members,

this message is for those of you who are attending the 6th World Landslide Forum on November 2023.

In case you will be in Florence, you need to be informed about a side event for which you may want to consider staying in Florence one more day (before or after the congress): some LandAware members from the University of Florence, together with other colleagues, will organize a guided tour on a hill in the center of Florence (3 hours walk), to let you have the best view possible of the city and to tell you some stories about how the geology of the area influenced the development of the city. That will include landslides (of course!) threatening historical buildings and remedial measures planned by Leonardo da Vinci and now forgotten by Florence people!

This activity will be scheduled on Monday (before the congress) and on Saturday (after the congress). It will be offered as a free side event and will be advertised in the near future, but considering that some of you are already booking the flights and the accommodation, it’s better to spread the word in advance.

If you are interested, just program your trip to Florence accordingly, no other action is needed from your side at this moment: you will receive an official mail from WLF6 in the next few weeks. 

Of course, feel free to spread the word among other WLF6 attendees and also keep in mind that accompanying persons will be welcome (the tour is not a technical one).

Here you are the highlights of the guided tour:

• Florence 2000 years ago: Romans Vs. Etrurians in a peculiar geomorphological setting.

• Florence and its river between opportunities and disasters, searching for signs and memories that only trained eyes can see.

• The spectacular “Piazzale Michelangelo” and its incredible history, forgotten even by Florence people [spoiler: landslides involved].

• High exposure: how humanity risked living without ice cream because of a landslide (or was a landslide that gave us ice cream?).

• Palaces and churches: the story of famous ancient buildings spoken by their very stones.