Rainy day while looking for new lodgings

Rained all the afternoon. I did not sleep well, did not wake early, had no breakfast, took my bath, washed my hair and a few things.

I went in to see Florence and found her perfectly discouraged about herself. I advised her to see a different doctor and to try to get some help which I believed would be through diet and not through medicine. So she went down and got the manager to call up Dr. Toti who recommends a Dr. Giglioli near the Montebello.*

This afternoon right after lunch we went down to his office and he was most encouraging. He said they had found new remedies for this mucous colitis and that it was controlled by diet more than by medicine but he said she ought to go to some place where she would have just the right kind of cooking and he mentions the Montebello and a Miss Peters.

He also gave her tiny doses of castor oil and salol** to take every two hours and a dessert spoonful of Laxative Vaseline every night. I like the doctor very much and I am sure she is going to be better.

It rained and we took a carriage to the Montebello where we found Helen who made us some delicious coffee with cream, bread and butter and cake, very nice. We talked over places and I made up my mind to try to go to some place for 6 or 7 francs than to try to get into the Montebello for eight, so Helen and I went to a pension in the Arno and I looked at rooms, good for 6 fr., very good for 7, good cooking and all. I think we shall go there together but it depends on what Florence can do. We may go to Lausanne, later on.

It was raining hard so we took a cab back to the Montebello and then further to the Fiesole tram for F. and me. The rain came in the top of the car and I got wet. Changed all my things when I got back. Had dinner, cup of hot milk, an egg, soup, beans, dessert -strawberries with white white. Some new people have come here.

*Hotel Montebello, Via Curtatone 2.
**Phenyl salicylate, or salol, is a chemical substance, introduced in 1886 by Marceli Nencki of Basel. It can be created by heating salicylic acid with phenol. It has been used as an intestinal antiseptic based on the antibacterial activity upon hydrolysis in the small intestine.