Tourist - Spots

For the five days now I have been tormented with hives, or at least I think they are hives. They appeared the first morning here in Florence and I haven't the foggiest what caused them. It might be the sun, as the pharmacist said. It's true. I have been without sunshine since last summer in Spain (sorry, I mean real sunshine, not what we get in Ireland or the UK). So I'm using a cortisone-based cream and taking anti-histamines. They're not getting better. I was so uncomfortable in the library that I got very little done.

Let's hope it passes. I'd rather not learn anything about the decrepid health system in addition to the university system.

The silly season has well and truly begun here. The city feels like it is groaning under the weight of tourists. Huge crowds swelling around the Piazza della Signoria, around the Galleria degli Uffizzi, all the usual places I suppose. I had to explain to one poor soul at the National Library that, no, you couldn't just take a wander around, that you needed an admission card. I tried to console her by telling her that there wasn't much to see. As a library it is not particularly beautiful. I could have added that as a library it is not particularly useful either.
I particularly enjoy those elderly American tourists who have a fierce look in their eyes. They are so serious that they have bought Nikes especially for the occasion and they are determined to see everything. They have a stamina I admire (and of which I am jealous, I must admit), and in this heat.

Won't post over the weekend I shouldn't think. Will probably go to Bologna to see some friends. Next week it Latin philology and textual criticism. Fingers crossed.