Dove eravamo rimasti? Where were we? I've been on vacation here in Stresa, but now it's time to get back to work reporting on all the happenings and supplying you with the information you need to make the most of your time spent in the "Pearl of Lago Maggiore."

Let's jump right in to a major event that began in mid-July and will continue until August 30th. You need to look up for this one, the 11th Annual Campionato Mondiale di Fuochi d'Artificio, the 11th Annual World Fireworks Championship. At six different locations, all easily reached from Stresa, all of them stunning visually even without fireworks, six different international fireworks companies will each put on their very best show.

The first event of this season, a show put on by Parente Fireworks of Italy, on July 25, was maybe the most interesting. For the first time ever, a fireworks display was staged at la Cascata del Toce, the waterfall of the Toce River, in Formazza. Imagine ten thousand noses, all pointed up, watching the light show in the sky which was reflected also in the waters of the falls. Now imagine that most of those people walked for 40 minutes to arrive at this remote spot, on a dirt trail lit only with their own flashlights, and you know that this must have been very special indeed...

Last weekend, Mergozzo hosted the second evening of fireworks, with a show presented by Forward Fireworks Company of China. I saw a bit of this display myself, from one entire lake away. As I was traveling in a boat on Lago Maggiore that evening, I was able to see in the clear sky, far away, the bursts of fireworks over tiny Lago Mergozzo. Imagine how it was there...