Thank you for your beautiful sentiments and the interesting story of your travels. Have a great holiday season!

Rich

During this manic pre xmas time, I keep being diverted by – well -captivating diversions – such as your brilliant web site. The pity is I didn’t discover it earlier. The brilliance of your Vinitaly video frankly leaves me emotional. Your selection, the scenery, the presentation of the gastronomy and of the people shown were simply beautiful. My emotions are additionally stirred because we travelled closely behind you in May/June.

We stayed with relatives at Rivoltella on Lake Garda some distance South of Bardolino. A highlight was touring the shoreline of the lake – incredibly diverse – Roman and Venetian towns, tourist areas, quiet villages and alpine wilderness. There was an historic highlight – both French and Italian flags were flying atop the Lombard castle tower at Rivoltella. The 150th anniversary of the victory of the battle of San Martino over the Austrians on 24 June 1859 was being celebrated. The signing of this momentous event in Italian history took place at Rivoltella – so I was told. Another highlight was watching the commemorative Mille Miglia rally pass through the town of Rivoltella during a beautiful evening in early June. At another time I had attended a pre rally marshalling display at Brescia with a cousin who co-founded the event. But this year we experienced it, as millions of Italians now do, by cheering them through the town. These incredibly beautiful machines mostly piloted by exotic looking couples in period attire were wildly greeted at their time checks in front of town dignitaries who sat in makeshift stands while the brass band played. At the given signal each vehicle, Auto Union, Maserati, Bugatti or whatever would scream off with horn blaring to raucous applause. The interest and sponsorships for this “Mille Miglia” event in Italy are becoming ‘bigger than Texas’…..I’ve strayed from your Veronese Vinitaly video!

Verona is a pleasantly paced and intrinsically interesting small city. We stayed there twice in the month after Vinitaly at the hotel Maxim. A highlight was the delightful standard of quality service in our outings – but then it’s as equally difficult finding bad service in Italy as it is trying to get a bad coffee! Before leaving Verona we fulfilled a fantasy by attending an open air night time performance of Aida at the Roman Arena. Hollywood spectacular is close when describing the production. I later learnt that Franco Zeffirelli is associated with the company. There were over 500 players on the stage at various times. The ballet and the sets were brilliant…the sound transmission for such a large open venue was excellent.

That shot in your video of the weird islet of St Julian taken from the piazza of Orta stirred emotional memories. Will the mystique of such precious little places fade as the world discovers them?

I must ‘pop’ this dreaming and get back to reality – which is getting Xmas cards written – and E messages – and planning for Xmas day. We’re hosting thirty at home – hire trestles – sleeping arrangements – and there’s people politics.

And we should all stay healthy!

Best wishes

Carl

Great to meet you and taste with you at Vinitaly!

Ci vediamo nel 2010…