This blog comes to you from the family holiday in Northern Italy, or more precisely from Desenzano del Garda on the southern shore of Lake Garda, surely one of the world's great beauty spots.
Can't get away from the music, though: on the way back to our hotel from a short kayaking excursion, my ear was caught (maybe assaulted would be a better word) by the unmistakable strains of "Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma, sung at full volume over an enormous (and excellent) PA system which was up in preparation for Desenzano's yearly grand fireworks bash held for their "Ferragosto" holiday. The soprano, not, you'll be glad to know, dressed in full druidic priestess outfit, was singing her heart out into the microphone, face pointed firmly towards the lake and away from any possible audience. Only in Italy...
Actually, Norma has got form in these parts: by far its most famous interpreter of modern times was Maria Callas, who lived for several years in a house just by the Villa of Catullus at Sirmione. If property is all about location, location and location, the Villa of Catullus has to be the single most fantastic piece of real estate in the whole of Europe: set on cliffs at the tip of Sirmione, it commands a 350 degree view of the lake and the surrounding mountains, with only a thin spit of land connecting it to the mainland. It's all pretty much in keeping with Callas's image, and she has a small park named after her opposite the house.
