Bologna is beautiful....
Some years ago, I went to a meeting in Bologna, set in a monastery converted into a conference centre. For reasons still not clear, I had registered for the meeting without booking any accommodation. As it turned out, the meeting was in the middle of year long celebrations of a significant anniversary of the city's existence - I forget the numbers but it was in centuries.
Jet-lagged, I arrived at the registration desk and went through the formalities. I then asked the very nice Italian registration person if she could recommend anywhere to stay, me not having arranged that beforehand. She looked at me in silence for a long moment.
"North Americans..." she breathed and not in a complimentary way, which was justified given the information that followed. "You realize that this is the [x] hundredth celebration of Bologna?" I think it might have been 1000. Anyway, it was very close to the founding of the 900th anniversary of the founding of the University of Bologna.
I said I hadn't. There was another incredulous silence after which she said, "The city is full. The nearest available hotel room is in Florence."
"Oh, " I said. More silence.
"As it happens," she said reluctantly, "one of our key speakers has cancelled at the last minute, and his room is free."
"Oh?" I said in a tone of voice that I hoped displayed appropriate hope and gratitude, without actually grovelling.
I then found myself in possession of a single room directly across the Via de' Chiari from the conference centre, in luxurious refurbished monks' quarters that in this case included a bidet. Sometimes sloth is rewarded. It is certain that I was the least important person at this meeting, yet staying in VIP accommodation.
Even more fabulously, I discovered at the end of the street on the Via Cartoleria, the Godot Wine Bar, that opened at about 6 in the morning with Italian coffee any way you wanted it, and then converted to wine at any time at all, and was open until 3 AM. I spent the meeting ricocheting among the meeting, the luxurious monks' quarters and the Godot Wine Bar. It was wonderful. The moral of the story is that Bologna is different from baloney.
Spend your money on Bologna not baloney.
What is a skin care system? I tell patients who ask, who are almost all women but not quite, that a skin care system is a device designed to separate women from their money. As it happens, I have very little street cred as a woman, and being what I call a "blue collar dermatologist" my advice is not always valued. I give the advice anyway because I think it's true.
"Save your money for clothes and shoes," is my usual line and that goes down better. I'm not saying the companies that sell "skin care systems" are evil or bad. If people like to use them - and some people do - then they will. All I'm saying is I've never seen a skin care system anybody needed.
There are many "skin care systems" on the market: here and here and here and here and here and here and here, it goes on indefinitely.....
The main thing about a "system" as far as I can see is that it has a number of parts, sold as a package, and a marketing department wants to convince you that the best result comes from using all the parts, which they will sell you.
Here's a well known example, the acne treatment Proactiv. It has a "3-step" system, two of which contain 2.5% benzoyl peroxide, which is what works against acne. Benzoyl peroxide acne treatments are available over the counter in concentrations up to 5%, which is the usual. You only need one step. I met a young female doctor who swore she couldn't live without Proactiv and fair enough, if it works it works. I'm only saying it doesn't make any sense, and - guaranteed - there's no objective evidence that the "system" works better than any other benzoyl peroxide treatment, other than financially.
Once we get out of actual treatment into "skin care" it gets crazier. You've got your cleansers, your toners, your exfoliators and your moisturizers and they're all terribly important if you want to look like Cindy Crawford. Who exactly is Cindy Crawford anyway? There you go, my street cred blown again. I know who Justin Bieber is though, and he's fronting for Proactiv. Really, if you want to know what works for acne, it's all laid out in a very useful article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by two dermatologists from Toronto, and you can download it for free from PubMed Central.
They have a soul care system at the Godot Wine Bar. I'm there.
Shortest distance from Armaroli Loretta Skin Care in Bologna to Godot Wine Bar
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