League (kitchen) table

Yesterday we met our friend Paolo after work. We hadn’t seen him for a while, so it was nice to catch up. We were in Soho and we ended up having a bite in this little place (I know: the website is not really helpful at the moment, but at least it gives the address…).

It is a very typical “vineria”, the kind of place there are plenty of in Florence, which sell amazing (if slightly pricey) prosciutto, cheese and typical food from Tuscany, and of course all sorts of nice wines. The setting is also nice and very authentic, with “designer-ish wood tables”, as TimeOut calls them.

Speaking of tables, Mark posted a link to the QS research producing a new ranking of world universities. [Of course, nobody really believes in these league tables, even though they are always widely reported in the media and institutional newsletters (to point out their flaws if you’re coming out badly, or to unassumingly make the point if you’re a winner)].

In this league table, UCL comes fourth (up from last year’s seventh and second in Europe). Now, to go back to Florence and our proverbial campanilismo, the good news is that we are better than Imperial (personal rival, since Marta works there) and way better than King’s (official rival), who are not even in the top 10. So I suppose this is the table to be taken seriously…