I went to Florence to scout locations for a future Nextrip departure. I came back with a notebook full of things that have nothing to do with travel logistics.
On coffee
In Florence, a coffee at a bar costs less if you drink it standing at the counter. The same coffee, taken at a table, costs more — sometimes three times more. Nobody hides this. It's on the menu.
What they're selling at the table is not coffee. It's time. The coffee is the same. The frame is different.
Every brand that doesn't price its premium tier correctly is leaving this lesson on the floor.
On the museum
The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo has one room that I think about constantly. It holds the original Ghiberti Doors — the ones Michelangelo called the Gates of Paradise. The room is built around them. There is nothing else in the room.
Most brands put everything in the room. The hero product, the five alternatives, the comparison table, the FAQ. The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo understood that some things need space to be understood.
On the thing with software
The best software I've used recently has this quality: it does one thing and it does it before you ask. The worst software explains, at length, all the things it can do.
Florence didn't explain anything. You had to go looking. That felt like a feature, not a bug.