Malcesine

The Lago di Garda is the biggest lake of Italy and it is a few kilometers from Verona. We often drive up there for a walk in one of the lovely shore villages: Bardolino, Sirmione, Peschiera, Garda, Torri del Benaco, ecc. One of my favourites is Malcesine, further north, where the lake gets narrower and it is surrounded by high mountains.
This photo was taken in Malcesine, on a beautiful path that goes out of the village towards this little tower overlooking the clear waters.

Maria Callas in Verona

Maria Callas arrived in Verona from the USA in 1947. Here she will meet her future husband, a rich veronese with a superb villa in the country village near Verona. They got married in a little church in town and lived happy years here whilst her brilliant career took off at the Arena. In 1959 she met Aristotele Onassis and left her husband and Verona, starting that difficult relationship that ended so badly both for her private life and her career.

This building is very close to where I live. You can see a marble plate claiming that Callas lived in this corner flat, during her early stay in Verona, before she got married to Giovan Battista Meneghini.

Neon lights

Rainy evening, I am going home and walk on the wet cobblestones. This is Vicolo Tre Marchetti, you can see the Arena at the end of it. There are at least three small hotels here and a couple of restaurants. There are no shops, in fact on the right there are the back windows of the shops on Via Mazzini, the "high street". The Vicolo is short, not really attractive but pictoresque in its way and I have always thought that if I were a tourist I'd love to stay in one of these hotels...

Where would you stay if you were a tourist in your town?

Frames

On Via Sottoriva, a few steps from S. Anastasia Cathedral, there is this antiques shop. They have a variety of pieces, not luxury stuff, just very plain things. They specialize on wooden frames and occasionally they have paintings too. I was, in fact, captured by the painting and the print behind the window... I must go back and take a closer look...!

Autumn wind

A sudden gust of wind,
leaves flow everywhere,
whirling down on the cars and on my head.
Late afternoon in Verona, a few days ago.

Bookshop

For the first time since I started my DP, I entered the theme day as I had been inspired by this book shop. But I forgot to post the photo yesterday! I was so disappointed when I realized my mistake but I couldn't change the post. Apologies.
This is an old bookshop off Piazza Bra. It is a very special place because it is also an art gallery, as they also sell paintings of local artists. I really don't know how they can find the books, they must have a method to keep in mind where they put each author...

Italian Halloween?

We italians don't really know what Halloween is. I had a faint idea so I went on the web and searched the history of this event. I found it really interesting. The season change, from summer/light to winter/dark was a big issue for the people, centuries ago, and it is totally understandable. Irish and scottish myths related to the season change took over to the the US, with immigration, I guess.
We celebrate all Saints today and the dead people tomorrow but this is all about going to church and to the cemetery, no parties and spooky things to scare the spirits of the darkness... Although Halloween is breaking through in Italy as well, for now it remains on the surface, a matter of big commercial event.
My daughter (3 years) is so enthusiastic about Halloween, maybe they did something at school, she understood it is something about pumpkins, fairies and spiders!

Did you do something special for Halloween?