WW2’s August 11 Liberation Day in Florence

Festivities to honor the 1944 retreat of the German army after and the return of democracy to Florence. During this month, all the bridges except Ponte Vecchio had been mined and blown up in the retreat, and were not reconstructed until the 1950s.

Palazzo Vecchio’s Martinella bell will ring at 7 am, as it did 73 years ago to announce the arrival of the liberating Allied troops. Laurel wreathes will be laid below a plaque on Palazzo Vecchio (9 am) and also at the base of the monument to the war dead in Piazza dell’Unità (10 am).

At the end of the ceremony, city officials will walk back to Palazzo Vecchio accompanied by the music of the “Giacomo Puccini” Phiharmonic Band.  There, at 10:30 am, Mayor Nardella, and Silvano Sarti,  head of the WW2 partigiani (resistance fighters), will address the public in Piazza Signoria.

Liberation Day’s final event will be a free concert in the square offered by San Casciano’s “Oreste Carlini’ band (9 pm).