An hour after midnight on May 27, 1993, a massive explosion echoed throughout the city of Florence. A white Fiat Fiorino van, stolen from via della Scala the evening before and taken to Isolotto where it was loaded with explosives, had been driven into the city centre and parked under the Torre dei Pulci in via dei Georgofili. When the 280 kilograms of Pentrite and T4 (both components of Semtex) mixed with a small quantity of TNT were detonated, the car bomb blasted a crater 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep, cutting off all the electricity to the inner city. Fragments of metal debris landed as far away as via dei Calzaiuoli. Tragically, the explosion killed five people: municipal police inspector Fabrizio Nencini; his wife Angelamaria, live-in custodian at the Accademia dei Georgofili; their 9-year-old daughter, Nadia; two-month-old Caterina, baptised just four days prior; and 20-year-old architecture student Dario Capolicchio, who lived in a nearby apartment. Another 33 people were hospitalised for injuries.
In 2004, as a living memorial to the victims of the massacre, the Georgofili-Lambertesca Association together with the Accademia dei Georgofili planted an olive tree, somewhere between 250 and 300 years old, on the corner of via dei Georgofili and via Lambertesca.