When we got the Pannetts' Christmas Epistle this year, we were struck - no, haunted -

by the closing allusion to a mysterious photographer they'd seen taking pictures of swans on Lake garda.

Somehow struck a bell, but could we place it?

So nothing for it but to rummage back through the pics from our Gardese sojourn in August. And guess what!?!

There he was, in the little square by the Porto Vecchio in Malcesine...



...and, again on the pier where the boats come into Malcesine, ...



And. stranger yet and stranger,who was that shadowy figure lurking in the by the alleyway by the little pizzeria where we ate pizzas (duh!) and drank Allegrini's finest La Grolla just off the Piazza Bra in Verona, on the eve of the 10th anniversario of our primo incontro on 12th of August 1999??



I think we maybe need to go somewhere more discreet in 2010. Like Gurndsey, or Mancunia or some such place...

Tags: Malcesine, Verona, Rogue Photographer, Weirdness, Weirdness

Here are some pictures Ruth took of a remarkable emporium in this city remarkable for its Emporie (Armani and others)

This one sells baths, and bathroom "stuff".

Take a look : if you've never strolled down the Via Fatebenefratelli of and evening, you've never seen the like of this....

Tags: Milano, Shopping, Photos

Milan's cathedral is unlike any other Italian cathedral we've ever come across. It has over a thousand statues on the exterior of its roof alone.

Every point of this vast gothic edifice is extruded to produce a pinnacle which serves as the plinth for a sculpture of a saint



Click HERE to view a slideshow of pictures Jim shot on film using his Voigtländer Bessa R rangefinder camera in the piazza and on the roof.

Interesting to work on film again, and to rediscover the gotchas of celluloid. On this occasion it was the 24-shot film. Ran out half -way round the roof.. Ho hum. Thought it was a 36. Gotcha!

Tags: Milano, Photos

posting a new set of pics today...

...taken while sailing up to Malcesine from Desenzano

They’re on our Gallery Index page, in the sidebar on the right. Or just click here

Tags: Lake Garda, Lago di Garda