ABSTRACT
British Week in Florence in october 1966 was more than a trade show for british goods which had already been seen in other european cities. Florentines bought thousands of glasses of beer, and only british residents winced at the price. The british public, thought the Florentines, must be as orderly in fact as its reputation: for to prevent disorder florentine buses have one door for ingress and another, or two others, for egress, like Moscow’s buses. Some of the Americans are considered mad, because their riches are outwith the Florentines’ ken. An old florentine artist, contemporary with Picasso, has stories of street encounters in his youth which ended in knives.
