"Sad, that no joy has the possibility of being consumed without the shadow of new misfortunes covering it - and that joys also last? We believed for a minute in the serenity of the signed peace, that we had conquered Death, and here it is supervening in its blind collective forms. Yesterday was the first Christian feast after the signing of the peace: the public buildings were flagged and a calm and serene crowd filled the streets. Throughout the day this people who were just beginning to breathe the new air of stillness in the new light been threatened by the blindest, most sudden, most hateful of deaths.
Meanwhile, a few tens of kilometers away, in the beautiful green Mugello, the houses and temples were collapsing, and death was reaping. There really does not appear to be any rest or rest for this human race.
All the connecting, bonding, communication apparatus woven by man to unite and hold on to each other was destroyed in a few minutes: the telegraph and telephone poles knocked down dragged the wires, and the villages of the devastated area found themselves without communication... So nature makes fun of our precautions” (La Nazione, 30.06.1919).
It was June 29, 1919. A violent earthquake struck Mugello. Many victims, many buildings destroyed. Enormous desperation among the population that was just then slowly recovering from the First World War. A little less than a hundred years since then, the opening conference of the earthquake centenary was held on 28 February at the Mugello racetrack, a year of initiatives dedicated to one of the major events that have affected the Florentine area. Organized by the Metropolitan City of Florence, the Unions of Municipalities of Mugello and the Municipalities of Valdarno and Valdisieve, with the contribution of the operational structures of the National Civil Protection System, the project sees the participation of local authorities, state institutions, the Tuscany Region, research bodies such as INGV, the CNR and the Ximeniano Observatory Foundation of Florence, professional associations and many voluntary associations.
Numerous initiatives are planned for the current year. Conferences, thematic meetings, exhibitions and exercises on the topic of seismic risk useful for creating automatisms during emergencies, disseminating correct information, raising awareness of institutions and citizens on the importance of self-protection rules and above all on the irreplaceable and indispensable action of prevention. Many personalities attended. Everyone brought their own sector experience, their own study, their goals, their own proposal; all confirming that the multidisciplinary approach is fundamental on a subject that concerns us so closely. Carlo Meletti, researcher of the Pisa section and coordinator of the Seismic Hazard Center, intervened for the INGV with the map of the Italian seismic hazard and the list of prevention tools, recalling how everyone, at various levels, is involved in this process where only the synergistic and coordinated work allows you to better address the critical issues of the territory.
"A year full of initiatives awaits us with numerous conferences, meetings and seminars on specific issues always related to seismic risk aimed at both professionals and the population - underlines Leonardo Ermini, head of the Civil Protection of the Metrocittà. To the latter for example the traveling exhibitions in the Municipalities of Mugello and Valdisieve will be addressed and the two exhibitions organized respectively by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology together with the Ximeniano Observatory Foundation and by the National Department for Civil Protection". In fact, within this scientific-popular event, on 29 June 2019, exactly one hundred years after the earthquake, the exhibition "Mugello 1919: one hundred years ago an earthquake ... memory and science" will start (Borgo San Lorenzo, 29 June - October 31, 2019). Curated by the INGV Cultural Heritage Office, the itinerary includes the display of about forty instruments and dozens of historical documents, from the sixteenth century to the present day, including originals and copies, described by multimedia animations and with an essential and clear language , in compliance with the correctness of the contents. The exhibition will tell the evolution of instrumental seismology from the eighteenth century to today, also in relation to the occurrence of the most disastrous Italian earthquakes of the last century and with particular regard to the Florentine seismological tradition.