Happy New Year ...

...to all of you, your families and friends!!

Arona

A bunch of snow

Arona

Just...berries

Arona

Idyllic

Arona

Soft sofa

Arona

Merry Christmas to all of you!!

I will be away till the 27th December, visiting family and friends in the beautiful hills of the Preappennines, south of Milan, while toasting to the good health of all my blogging friends, wishing them well for the coming New year. I will also toast to those who steer our planet in all its aspects, wishing, with all my heart, that they will stick their heads together and use and apply - with good common sense - the good old scale of those precise and unquestionable values which can make the world a better place than it is today, and ...... exclusively to the benefit of the international collectivety and not to their own!!

"Auguri di Buon Natale e un Felice Anno Nuovo!"

Lake front, Arona

Rose bushes...

...sticking out of 35cm of snow this morning

Arona

Struggling to school in winter...

...at minus 9° Celsius

Arona

In the wee small hours of the morning...

...it finally started snowing

Arona

Good mornin' to ye all...!

...and have a nice day!

Castle of Angera

A quiet walk along the quiet lake...

...on a quiet sunday morning with snow on the Alps.

Arona

Preparations for Christmas: the ice rink

Arona

Today with Yesterday

Frankfurt, the muscle-city,

Germany

Golden light on black marble

1951 hotel in Frankfurt

When Man and Nature come together as one

Varano Borghi

Forgotten tree

In the sense that I had forgotten to re-propose this tree.

Arona

Quiet natural shelter for water birds

Arona

This is the last photo of my tree-series while I am flying home from Germany. Thank you all for your wonderful comments!!

I have travelled for nearly two weeks in some of the northern European countries with three wonderful partners from China whom I professionally assist. They have totally monopolized my attention while chatting the ears off my head, asking hundreds of questions about the culture, the food, the wines and habits of the countries we were driving through by car. Two weeks of unrefrained enthusiasm to see the artistical wonders of northern Italy, the soft hills of northern France, the golden ornaments of the buildings on the Grand Place in Brussels, the flat land of Holland with its enormous clouds piling on top of each other above the horizon, the impressive and powerful centre of wealthy Frankfurt. But also two weeks of meetings with customers, full breakfasts, lunches and dinners in excellent hotels and restaurants, with rich and lushios buffets offering everything any normal and wise person of over sixty would not give in to. Two shattering weeks of "tomorrow-is-another-day", accompanied by the best of wines, to which I would not have dreamed to say no to. Yes, I know that I will be happy this afternoon to open the front door of my apartment, to embrace my lovely wife, and I confess that I also look forward to her light "hospital soups", for the next few weeks...

Ice trees

Arona

Photoshop in Autumn

Arona

The silence of the lake

Corgeno

Fossilized Breeze

Arona

Autumn Leaves

Arona

Sunrise

Arona

Autumn

I am posting some of my photos while I am away. I had already posted these photos in the past but at the very beginning of my blogging adventure.

Arona

Fragments of kites

I found a booth on the weekly market in Alessandria, where they sell kites in all shapes and colours.

I was in Alessandria to assist at the ceremony which the Mayor of Alessandria had organized for Marina Vicari Lerario (one of my new blogging friends from San Paulo in Brasil - http://marinavicarilerario.blogspot.com/ ), who makes excellent paintings and has great interest in this expression of the Arts and in Art in general. On this particular occasion Marina officially donated to the City of Alessandria most of the hand drawn technical designs her father, Giuseppe Vicari, a famous Italian architect in the earlier part of the 20th Century, had made for various buildings in this city, among which the Palace of Justice.
A few days after the ceremony Marina came to Arona with her niece Francesca, where I had the pleasure to show them around, although it was a very rainy day.
My wife and I were very pleased to meet with you both, Marina and Francesca, and we will surely stay in touch!

It is wonderful to meet with blogger-friends, like I already did with Jilly (http://menton-daily-photo.blogspot.com/) and will, in the near future, with Virginia (http://alabamabirminghamdailyphoto.blogspot.com/.

I will be away again promoting wines in the northern part of Europe and will be back on the 21st November. Till then!

Extravagant...

...that is why I like it.

Alessandria

A 19th century doorway...

...to a 15th century church

Santa Maria del Carmine

Alessandria

Happy Halloween to ye all!

Arona

Playing with black and white

Varano Borghi

Fog again in the morning

Arona

A life-long promise

Brussels, Belgium

Hurrying to church

Schipluiden, Holland,

where, they say, famous 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, got married.

"Chocolat"

When you have the chance to go to Brussels in Belgium, take a walk through the characteristic little streets around the majestic Grand Place with its architectural wonders, but do not forget to visit the Queen's Gallery (Galerie de la Reine) with its elegant shops but, most of all, with its magnificent chocolate parlours, where the scent of a variety of dark, white, bitter-sweet, gianduja and candy-covering chocolate in all shapes and compositions inserts itself into your nostrils like a bull's nose ring, which makes you obediently walk along tables and shelves full of handmade treasures. Convincing shop assistants know exactly where and how to hit the weakest point in your soul and you cannot resist buying more than necessary, hoping that the ones you love will appreciate these precious gifts rapped up like tiny origami sculptures. Before the treasures are carefully folded away, take one out and let your palate hull you to heaven and then down again: the chords of your senses will suddenly play that symphony you have always been waiting to hear! This, to celebrate my 300th photo with you!

Galerie de la Reine, Brussels

The climate change...

...when all bloggers come together as one, to put on pressure on all leaders of the world to make them more aware of the fact that the advancing scarcity of sweet water wells is compromising the world's growing need of water and food; that the increasing temperatures are melting the ice of the poles and of the glaciers, and thus increase the level of the seas, which with their salt water will invade and destroy our lands and our need for sweet water; that scarcity of this blue gold and consequently advancing desertification of many an agricultural part of our planet will generate hunger and thirst on an enormous scale, and cause migrations to parts of the world which would not have sufficient structures and infrastructures to host those in need. Our leaders must immediately take serious decisions for the sake of our children, grandchildren and the generations to come.

Val Roseg in Switzerland,

where ice and eternal snow were once abundant

Still life...

...in my family home in Holland

The Hague

Tiny houses for the tallest people in the world

Statistically, the tallest people in the world, as measured by country, are the Dutch. The average height for all adults in the Netherlands is 1.85m. There are taller people belonging to certain populations like the Maasai, who live in parts of Kenya and Tanzania. But as a whole, the citizens living in Holland are on average the tallest people on the planet. The Dutch are followed by the Danes (1.83m). The Americans who used to be the tallest, have fallen on stature to an average height of 1.78m. Researches have attampted to account for what makes a certain country have the tallest people and conclude that factors for height include a combination of genetics and nutrition. Those who study these statistics suggest that the Dutch emphasis on early childhood care, a diet rich in dairy products and thus high in protein, and a fairly even distribution of wealth have contributed to making the Dutch the world's tallest people.

Main square in Gouda

Holland

In the silence of a sunday morning

" Westland" near The Hague

Holland

Playing with the power of Nature

Scheveningen

Holland, the land where the horizon...

...is kissed by the clouds.

the Northsea
Scheveningen

Waiting for next weekend

Part of Arona's main square with harbour

I will be away for 10 days in Belgium and Holland.

See you upon my return!

Day trippers...

...taking the September sun

Lake front

Arona

A sun worshipper...

... on the Italian Riviera

Sestri Levante,

at about 150 miles southeast of Arona

A pure Art Déco roof with frosted glass

Sestri Levante

A father and son...

...in contemplation

Lake front, Arona

He did all this...

...last sunday morning

Arona

What tourists will remember...

...of summer in Arona

main square in Arona

The Courtyard

I laid flat on the ground and pointed my camera along the balcony-railing of the two floors towards the open roof of this courtyard.

Historical Centre of

Arona

Oh, Come Ye...

White Baroque

Weingarten,

Germany

Sailing on silver

Arona,

Lake Maggiore

A simple terrace table

Arona