>>You telling me you would not be enriched by living for a few months in Florence? I know I would.<<
Did you ever hear of a little thing called the internet?
How about television?
I have friends in Sydney. We talk on Facebook, we email, I see films of her kids and she sees films of mine. There is a big wide world out there, free for the consuming, right in your home. I even have a phone where I can call them for birthdays and Christmas. It’s amazing.
So no, I see no reason to spend a few months in Florence. I can study it right in my home. I can talk to people there via Skype. This is 2011. I don’t have to leave the comfort of my livingroom to experience the world, and I save a ton of money staying here.
Your daughter may well be an exception to a rule.
If you think you can experience Florence by sitting at your computer, I'll just say you're sadly mistaken and leave it at that.
Siena is better, though.
Did you ever hear of a little thing called the internet?
How about television?
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Internet and TV as surrogates for reality? Not in my world. One can certainly get a relatively superficial sense of what another place is like as you describe above, but in no way are tv and the internet anywhere close to being the same experience as boots on the ground.
I defy you (in a friendly, collegial manner) to visit the old city of Jerusalem and not be completely blown away by how it is just a different place that anything you have imagined, heard or read about. Or hearing the call to prayers while wandering Nativity Square in Bethlehem. Absolutely chilling. Not gonna get that on the internet.
I cannot agree, in any way, that tv and the internet are at all comparable to living it. But that is JMO.