{"id":16103,"date":"2024-03-18T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T04:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/?p=16103"},"modified":"2024-03-07T00:50:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T05:50:31","slug":"the-mud-angels-how-students-saved-the-city-of-florence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/the-mud-angels-how-students-saved-the-city-of-florence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mud Angels: How Students Saved the City of Florence"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Karen M. Greenwald<\/em><\/p>

Award-winning author Karen M. Greenwald’s books include The Mud Angels: How Students Saved the City of Florence, and the Kansas 2022 Notable Book, A Vote for Susanna, The First Woman Mayor.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\"\"Imagine studying Italian in a college program in Firenze! One week it\u2019s gelato, the Uffizi, and San Lorenzo Market. The next? \u201cLa Bella\u201d is covered in tons of oily, stinky, debris-filled mud. Danger surrounds the city. What do you do?<\/p>

In 1966, when the Arno flood\u2019s aftermath put Florence in peril, international students studying there ignored barriers to help. Thousands followed. These unexpected heroes became known as, \u201cAngeli del Fango\u201d or \u201cMud Angels.\u201d After lengthy interviews with 16 Florida State University alumni who were among the first in the mud, I now call them \u201cfriends.\u201d

Many examples of Mud Angel selflessness exist, but what happened at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (BNCF) captivated me. Centuries-old treasures waded close to destruction in the library\u2019s stench-ridden, water and mud filled basement. Students submerged themselves for endless hours each day\u2014initially without protective gear\u2014searching. Many female students only had skirts, thanks to 1960\u2019s dress codes.<\/p>

Why would foreigners endure these unpleasant, unsafe challenges for a heritage not necessarily their own? Most American Mud Angels I interviewed participated at the BNCF. Their answer? Losing any Italian antiquity felt personal, because \u201c[o]nce in the mud, we were all Italian!\u201d

After two years of researching and writing my picture book, THE MUD ANGELS: HOW STUDENTS SAVED THE CITY OF FLORENCE, I feel a closeness to Firenze and passion for my Italian language course. I\u2019m honored to share this surprising story of young people from around the world working side-by-side to preserve Italian cultural treasures!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karen M. Greenwald Award-winning author Karen M. Greenwald’s books include The Mud Angels: How Students Saved the City of Florence, and the Kansas 2022 Notable Book, A Vote for…Read More <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16103"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16109,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions\/16109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}