Have you heard about the Stendhal syndrome? Maybe you have been hit by it? It is a mental and emotional distress that happens because of experiencing too much of artistic beauty. There is an anecdote about an excursion to Florence when two professors approached the sculpture of David at the same time. One was the art teacher and couldn't stop her tears while the other, the teacher of science asked her in disbelief - Do you cry because of this STONE?

Stendhal syndrome has diagnosed and named in 1979 by Italian psychologist Dr. Graziella Magherini upon the symptoms of hundreds of patients hospitalized in Florence because of this psychosomatic disorders hitting them as tourists over a few years. The syndrome is featured by rapid heartbeat, nausea, confusion, dizziness and even hallucinations that were noticed at some patients as the result of "overdose" of beauty in consuming the art, the beauty of sculptures, paintings and architecture in this cradle of Renaissance that drags art lovers and tourists from all over the world. But Florence hospital statistics prove that the most of them were from foreigners, mainly from West Europe, and not any of them was ever an Italian. "It is like they got used to art and beauty, they even call their own country 'bella Italia' meaning beautiful Italy"

At his time it was Stendhal who wrote about his travel to Naples and Florence in 19th century, describing his feelings as he became overcome with emotions:

"I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations ... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.''

According to the statistics of Dr Magherini this syndrome hits sensitive and creative individuals that travel alone or in pairs, never those ones who travel in tourist groups.

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