Night view of Florence skyline from the Piazzale Michelangelo

Home tomorrow with a full heart, head, eyes, nose, and stomach

I fling Jenny Odell's book "How to do Nothing" heedlessly at anyone who shows the slightest interest. Here she's gone and written about why Wagner is worth your time.
www.sfopera.com/operas/parsi...

My mother’s immediate response to this photo: “my grand sheep!!!”

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After two whirlwind days in Florence, we are now headed to stage three of our vacation: Tuscan villa wedding.

Today we compromised and went to six museums—but none of them were paintings based. Medici Library, Speculo, and Boboli gardens were highlights ♥️

Yesssss I have rosacea and recently became reactive to basically every “gentle” face wash except their sulfur bar soap 😭

Have pity on my poor boyfriend, whom I dragged through the Uffizi and then to two large churches—and after this spritz break, we are going to see another church, a perfume shop, and another museum 😅

Florence is beautiful but it does kind of have “Renaissance Times Square” vibes 😅

Strange mix of inconsideration for others while also commitment to only experiencing art through the phone camera lens

Waking into a room with a famous painting only to see crowd of iPhones held in the air is pretty depressing, people not being polite and taking turns viewing, blocking labels while not looking at them, general lack of spatial awareness in crowds…

The Uffizi is incredible but I think we need some kind of worldwide marketing campaign to improve art museum behavior

'Rare' medieval hair accessory uncovered at Eilean Donan Castle The gravoir was used for neatly parting hair and creating elaborate hairstyles.

She is holding a book! 📖
Currently writing a section on visual evidence for book use in medieval Scotland - so this could not be better timed...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Next time we are in times sq 😅

OP looking at rare books in a case in an 18th century library

Elegant library hall, walls lined with books and display cases in the middle

The library at the abbey of Novacella. They redid the medieval basilica in the 18th century in a rococo manic phase and seem to have also rebound all their books then too!

View of the Alpine landscape from Plose on a bright sunny day

Alpine cheese. Venison and goose. Pine flavored everything. South Tyrolian wine. I saw Otzi the Ice Man, rode in a cable car, and visited one of the oldest wineries in Europe (along with their library).

I have been in the Italian Alps for the last 4 days—hiking, swimming, sauna-ing, and winery-visiting. I think this region is my food soul mate. Next stop: Florence.

Ah but they are not addressing that demographic. They are addressing people whose personalities consist of dunking on that demographic!

BSB Clm 8112, fol. 106r

Today is the feast of Leoba, d. 782, learned kinswoman of Boniface who began her life in religion at Wimborne Abbey and accompanied B. to Germany. BSB Clm 8112, a copy of the Bonifatian correspondence, includes Leoba's letter from Wimborne ca. 732 introducing herself to Boniface. 🕯️#nuntastic

Drawing of pig with caption above: "I am a pig and don't care"

And one of my absolute favorites: "I AM A PIG AND I DON'T CARE" eb-j.org/browse-artwo...

"The Printing Press Democratized Knowledge": When Slogans Masquerade as History — Sonja Drimmer The phrase is said so frequently it seems, like the mechanism it celebrates, to mechanically replicate itself.  It's become a favorite catchphrase among tech boosters of any sort (see my post on...

What, exactly, does this string of words mean? Why does everyone who stands to profit from selling "AI" love to repeat it? And what's the value of slogans that masquerade as history?

sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

People who don’t want to look at ads or “AI” scams. People who are using a dictionary in a browsing way rather than just looking up a specific word. People who need to be able to cite something stable…

Train stations are fine! I say this as someone who once spent the night in Paddington after arriving on a late flight from Paris to discover Boxing Day is a bigger holiday in the UK than I thought.

It’s not flying that I hate per se—it’s the entire environment of the airport.

Computer kid giving thumbs up meme

Going to the airport four hours early in vain attempt to assuage my travel nerves

If this deeply embarrassing take is representative of the level of integrity, rigor, and intelligence that NPR brings to reporting then you deserve to lose funding.

manuscripts reading room: do not bring anything in, including yourself. place your internal organs in a clear plastic bag and keep it on the table at all times

office at rare books seller: hold manuscript at least 20cm away from your face if eating a hotdog. ashtrays must be kept on the windowsill

Car brained stupidity from NPR

“Helpful tip: In order to not get murdered by a car, make sure you’re on a 360 swivel at all times, because remember… drivers don’t even look the direction they are driving in”