Still Life

Florence is hit hard by rainy season, and the river Arno overruns its banks and floods the entire city. Alys and Cress have driven to Rome, and Ulysses finds himself alone with the pensione for the first time. The cellars in his house flood, and in trying to fix the problem, Ulysses feels an urgency akin to his experience during the war. He also tries and fails to save one of his globes. An elderly neighbor, the Contessa, stays in Ulysses’s house when her electricity goes out, and they watch from Ulysses’s upstairs window as items from ground-floor stores and homes pour into the streets. Voices call across the streets, asking after neighbors. Ulysses sends Claude flying across the street with a candle in his beak to deliver to a neighbor in need.

The next morning, the waters recede, leaving behind a thick layer of odorous mud. Cars are overturned, and storefronts are destroyed. People in the street are shocked and declare that the damage from the flooding is worse than the war. Ulysses’s globe workshop is completely destroyed.

News of the river Arno’s flood and the destruction of roads, stores, and artwork reaches the world.