Seems everyone knows about the Venice and regular floods, when streets and homes are afloat in the city. But not many people know about floods in Florence. Cronicles state that Florence was flooded in 1333, 1557, 1884 and 1886, when water caused terrifying damage to the city and it outskirts. Giovanni Villani - Italian banker, official, diplomat and chronicler from Florence who wrote the Nuova Cronica (New Chronicles) on the history of Florence, wrote about this flood:

By noon on Wednesday, November 3, 1333, a flood along the Arno River spread across the entire plain of San Salvi. By nightfall the eastern wall of the city that was damming the water became damaged and then washed away in the flood, allowing the flood waters to breach and fill the city streets. Water rose above the altar in the Florence Baptistry, reaching over half the height of the porphyry columns. These columns, presented to Florence by the Pisans more than two hundred years before, have scratched lines to this day indicating the water level reached by the flood in 1333.

Height of the flood water in the courtyard of the commune's palace (residence of the podestà) reached 3 m (10 ft). The Carraia bridge collapsed with the exception of two of its arches, while the Trinità bridge collapsed except for one pier and one arch located towards the church of the Santa Trinità. The Ponte Vecchio — save the two central piers — was swept away when huge logs in the rushing water became clogged around the it, allowing the water to build and leap over the arches, states Villani. There was an old statue of Mars that stood on a pedestal near the Ponte Vecchio, but this too was taken by the flood along the Arno.