Time Travel the Easy Way

A few days ago, Beth my exercise buddy mentioned that she'd been rereading some of Connie Willis' time-travel stories, and it inspired her to ask me a question:  If you could go back in time to do historical research, what time and place would you pick?

I mulled it over for a few days before I figured out why I was having so much trouble coming up with an answer. See, the problem is that I really, really like my creature comforts:  hot showers and central heating and air conditioning and the i...