“She’s gonna serve short! She’s gonna serve short! Move forward!” they whispered to each other, hastening towards the net. The opposing team was certain that, despite the fact that I was the first server, my serve would fall short, or perhaps not even make it over the net at all. They had rather hastily decided that since I wasn’t a visually formidable opponent, I wasn’t a worthy one. Well, they were definitely right about the unintimidating...

It was two years ago, on a stifling August day in Florence, that I developed an unexpected new passion. The Galleria dell’Accademia swarmed with profusely sweating and exhausted tourists, crouching down to relieve their aching, bag-laden backs. I was one of those many sluggish visitors, and was not particularly looking forward to the tour ahead. The next hour, however, was not what I, or any of us, had expected: it took a few minutes to adjust to our tour...