I had the unfortunate experience of visiting Florence at the height of tourist season, at the hottest time of year.

The days were oppressive. At night the stones oozed with the heat of the sun. Tour groups clogged every passageway.

While my intent was to see all the great art works, I didn’t go into a single museum.

Instead, my sister and I slept all day and wandered the streets all night.

We ate as much gelato as we could. It was too hot for anything else.

We hung out at the market and ate fresh fruit while we gossiped about our flatmates.

Her roommates and I came up with fun alternate uses for the bidet in their apartment.

At the end we agreed we were so sick of our clothes that we swapped bags. We were light packers, even then. Maybe too light.