Travelling...

....is much less painful on a moderately acceptable airline leaving at a moderately acceptable time. My journey to Florence was on BA via LCY, and while both of the flights were quite full they were not particularly uncomfortable and there were no drunks in evidence. I had to get up fairly early - but only just slightly earlier than yesterday's unscheduled early rise thanks to the building alarm going off.

The only slight fly in the travelling ointment was that I've forgotten to bring a Fitbit charger and my Fitbit might not last on its present charge until the end of the week. I have taken steps to reduce the battery consumption.

On arrival in Florence, there was - for once - no queuing for passport control and I was straight out of the airport and on to a waiting tram. I had a pleasant potter through the city centre up to Piazza Libertà to my hotel, a new and rather shiny one, part of a German chain, I think. I took in one of my favourite Florentine squares on the way, namely Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, and scored my blip in front of the basilica.

Later I met JDz and JS (over from NZ for the first time at a conference since 2019) for a meal at EDI House on Piazza Savonarola, which is another of my favourite Florentine piazzas.

As ever, the hotel room was supplied with a ridiculously thick and heavy duvet (one of the perils of going for a European chain hotel, rather than sticking with the old fashioned locally owned hotels). In the middle of the night, I had to liberate the duvet cover from the duvet and just cover myself with that in order to get some sleep.