PROVIDENCE — What do Florence, Italy, and the capital city of Rhode Island have in common?

They were both the victims of natural disasters in the past century that resulted in catastrophic flooding and millions of dollars in damage.

A weeklong series of events, “Splendor of Florence, Sott’Acqua: A Tale of Two Cities Underwater,” to be held Nov. 9-17 will focus on raising awareness of climate change by highlighting the monumental historical floods in Florence in 1966 and the damage wrought by Hurricane Carol in Rhode Island in 1954.

In August of that year, Hurricane Carol became the most powerful storm to strike Rhode Island since 1938, leaving 19 dead, many injured, and the entire state devastated. Downtown Providence was under 12 feet of water at one point, the result of storm surge propelled by 90-mph winds. Property damage was more than $200 million, nearly 4,000 homes either disappeared or were severely damaged, and some 2,000 boats were destroyed or damaged.

Joyce Acciaioli Rudge, founder and creative director of Splendor of Florence, said, “With catastrophic climate events rising, I hope that the programs during Splendor of Florence will elevate our awareness of climate change, and perhaps, even motivate action.”

“I know I’m not alone when I voice concern over worldwide flooding and the recent devastating hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina,” said Ruth Davis, Splendor of Florence coordinator. “Given that we had tremendous flooding that hit many Rhode Islanders last spring, our hope is to demonstrate through cultural exchange, we have the ability to affect change.”

The festival is co-sponsored by Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, Save The Bay, and the Providence Resilience Partnership, among others, and “acknowledges the renewal of a Friendship Pact between Florence and Providence, which reunites our two cities after 25 years,” Acciaioli Rudge said.

Arnaldo Minuti, consul general of Italy, said, “We share in the celebration of the 25-year-old friendship pact between Providence and Florence and the important cultural exchange that will help raise awareness of climate change. in working together, we believe that we will increase our ability to affect change.”

The weeklong festival will include the following events:

Michele Jalbert, executive director of the Providence Resilience Partnership, will lead community conversations about “Climate Ready Providence,” at The Pavilion at Grace Church on Nov. 9 and 11 from 4-6 p.m. These events are open to the public and geared toward people who might have questions about climate vulnerability.

On Nov. 13, there will be a screening of the Franco Zeffirelli documentary on the Florence floods, “Per Firenze,” and footage provided by the Rhode Island Historical Society of Hurricane Carol flooding downtown Providence.

On Nov. 14, a panel discussion on “Building Climate-Ready Workforces” will be held at CIC Providence from 2-3 p.m., featuring experts in education, business, and environmental sciences to discuss the future of workforce readiness, focusing on the intersection of climate action, sustainability, and education.

On Nov. 14 at 7 p.m., a roundtable panel discussion on “Sott’Acqua: A Tale of Two Cities — Climate Science and Climate Action in the Aftermath of Two Natural Disasters,” will held at Martinos Auditorium at Brown University.

The panel will be moderated by Cornelia Dean, a science writer and former science editor of The New York Times and author of “Making Sense of Science.” The discussion, among scholars and community representatives from both Florence and Providence, will focus on climate change, flood vulnerability, infrastructure preservation, justice, and community resilience.

The panelists are April Brown, director and organizational steward of the city’s Racial & Environmental Justice Committee; Enrica Caporali, professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Florence; Manuel Cordero, founder and principal of CIVIC; Emanuele Di Lorenzo, professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, Brown University; Macarena Gomez-Barris, the Timothy C. Forbes and Anne S. Harrison University chair of modern culture and media, and director of the Center for Environmental Humanities, Brown University; and Kyle McElroy, a Ph.D. candidate and researcher at the University of Rhode Island focused on coastal hazard risk response tools and communicating risk information.

There will also be a photo exhibit at Grace Church; an ocean touch tank from Save The Bay, also at Grace Church; art and painting events at RISD; an Italian opera master class; and more. The full schedule can be found here.