Bella Firenze

Florence, here I am at last. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Florence.

Before I begin, let me say that the conference was a resounding success and we got a great buzz from it. The papers were very strong and the discussion was encouraging and stimulating. It was exactly the environment we were hoping to foster. The English Faculty turned out in force, and we had Eric Stanley make the closing remarks, as brilliant as they were funny. Watch this spot for possible published proceedings...but more on that anon.

Florence. I flew to Forlì from Stansted. This required me to leave Oxford at 1 am this morning for a 7 am flight. Exhausted does not really describe my state at the moment. Paralytic with tiredness is much better. Anyway, I got the bus to Bologna where I spent the afternoon catching up with my landlady when I was there. It was lovely. Her dog is as insane as ever.

I have just got into my lodgings which are a little bit out of the city centre, but then, this is Florence after all. The 'foresteria' is obviously not in use much because the toilet was full of little tadpole thingies. I swear. I'm afraid to go into the bathroom now in case the mother ship comes back to punish me for flushing them away. God.

And, in keeping with my accident-prone week, a bottle of shower gel opened in my bag and covered every single thing in my wash bag (now in the bin) and covered my socks too. So while the room stinks of shower gel, there was not a drop left with which to actually wash.

More anon. Bed now. Early start. First day at school. Will the other kids play with me? Will I get homework?