With the USA becoming more and more fascistic, one way that universities such as Harvard can retain their independence would be to move most of their endowment fund and research to Britain – or France, Spain, wherever – thus protecting them from the criminal Trump and his imbecilic followers. John Harvard went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, so that would be an obvious place for Harvard to build a facility. The main university could stay in Cambridge, Mass., but all other activity would enjoy intellectual freedom here in Britain. 

I have been on my travels again. Camila and I went to Firenze on April 15th, our third visit to Italy. Previously we had been to Naples, to see Pompei and Herculaneum, and Venice. Unfortunately, it rained every day we were in Firenze except for the day we went to Siena, which was perhaps fortunate as Siena involved quite a bit of walking whereas everything in Firenze in close together. Fortunately the food in Firenze is excellent, as shown here.

Though there were some steady downpours, the rain was mostly confined to showers and we were able to see most of the things we wanted. The copy of Michelangelo’s David on Piazza della Signoria, for instance, and the famous bridge. In other words, all the tourist sites. This is a ‘what we did on our holidays’ blog.

I was pleased to see that the street art in Firenze was quite sophisticated. I collect street sign art and was able to capture some very good examples while there, as you can see:

Holiday snaps have to show various meals consumed, so here are some of our favourites: we returned to some of the restaurants more than once. We avoided obvious tourist traps where the menu consists of photographs of the food and tried only to eat in places where the specials listed in the window were all in Italian. Every meal we had was superb. And, of course, Tuscan wine is famously good. We particularly liked the Villa Antinori 2022 though also drank a fair amount of Chianti Classico.

There is so much to see in Firenze that you must be selective. We concentrated on Michelangelo and saw most of sculptures that are in the city’s museums and churches as well as the Doni Tondo in the Uffizi. It’s worth pointing out that the Florence Pass is more trouble than it is worth. No-one seemed to know anything about it and at the Uffizi we were eventually given a phone number to call to get the supposed priority booking. The organisation at the Accademia and the Uffizi was appalling, though a friendly young woman at the desk devoted the best part of twenty minutes trying to help us (and succeeded, eventually). So off we went, hoping for a case of the Stendhal Syndrome.

We walked to the Palazzo Pitti, and, as the rain had cleared, we went first to wander around the Boboli Gardens. There I was absurdly proud of myself for recognising part of Ramesses II’s cartouche on the obelisk there (Aswan c1260 BC). (Theo and I had been in Egypt two months earlier). There were some nice things in the museum including a Caravaggio that I missed but Camila photographed, and works by Raphael, Titian and Botticelli. Camila did our usual ‘Self portraits with ceiling’ and I managed to get a picture of her contemplating her future, as a row of doors opened before her into infinity.