“Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.”
—Stendhal, Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio, 1817
In 1989 psychiatrist Graziella Margherini published the book La Sindrome di Stendhal. The account chronicled numerous incidents in which tourists experienced sensory overload related to the exuberant art and architecture in the city of Florence. The Uffizi Gallery is said to be a popular locale for victims of this particular syndrome, and houses a recovery bed in a small room off of the gallery’s main corridor for those in need of rest or further care at nearby Santa Maria Nuova Hospital.
