I enjoyed this journey in the lakes of Italy: beautiful landscapes (lakes, mountains, islands), places of a great history and a rich gastronomy.
The Lake Como has received great visitors: Virgil and Pliny the Elder, then Stendhal and Byron: we meet the journalist Serena Brivio who is looking for George Clooney and visits thye Greta Suite in the Tremezzo Palace: she shows also the Balbianello Villa, a famous movie set (Starr Wars and Casino Royale). Guido Taroni has an album with picture of Luchino Visconti who spent his childhood at the Lake Como.
About 1/3 of the Lake Maggiore belongs to Switzerland: Marco Pelligrini crosses every day the border to work in Locarno: with his colleague of the trade union they drink Italian coffee and eat Swiss chocolate: other Italians works in services, shops or building construction.
Besides in the canton of Ticino there is the enclave of Campione d'Italia, a place known for its casino: Swiss currency, Swiss phone company, but Italian police and post services.
I enjoyed the zoom about Cremona: we meet Marcello Villa who tells the story of the violins (the Amati, then the Stradivari family Marcello is working with his sons Niccolo and Vittorio : nowadays there about 150 workshops making violins (300 luthiers): Bénédictine Friedmann who plays violin has come to Cremona to learn to make violins.
Verona is famous for the Romeo and Juliet story and also for its big Roman theatre: in the summer there are many opera performances: one day there is Nabucco and the next day La Traviata.
The excursion to the Valtellina Valley was very interesting: we meet Andréa who has 9 milk cows and produces a mountain cheese: his wife Laura manages the inn: she prepares "sciatt" buckwheat fritters: this night the visitors will ear the fritterd, tagliatelle and bresaola della Valtellina. Laura has practiced cross country skiing and meets her former coach Adriano Greco at the mountain cabin "Federico in Dosde" and they will climb a mountain.
I enjoyed also the zoom about Monte Isola Island: a place without cars: we meet the Nanni family who breeds sheep and produces fruits (black currants, raspbrries) and marmalades.
I enjoyed the encounters of Jérôme with Cesare Baj(the flight in seaplane), with the Riva family (shipwrights) , with Pia Molteni (Mount Mottarone in Piedmont), with Adonella Palladino (the Mille Miglia of Brescia) , with Andrea Soardi and his family in Monte Isola and with Alberta Cavazza and her mother Charlotte who live on the Island of Garda.ç: very nice encounters with kind Italian men and woman.