The Wall Street Journal has included a cheese shop in nearby Arona in their list of the top ten cheese shops IN THE WORLD. Luigi Guffanti 1876 came in fifth place on the list, preceding another one-hundred year old shop in Arona, Van Tricht Berchem, and three shops in France. The proud owner, Carlo Guffanti Fiori, says, " It is a great satisfaction to be appreciated in all the world. Our products are exported all over the planet." Exported and appreciated globally, you can find this now world-famous cheese shop on via Milano in Arona.

Brazilian director Glenio Bonder has been filming scenes from his next movie in and around Stresa. "La Belle du Seigneur" starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalia Vodianova, is a film adaptation of the story of the same name by Albert Cohen. It tells the tale of a troubled romance in which Solal (Meyers), a high-ranking Jewish diplomat, falls in love with the Protestant wife (Vodianova) of one of his subordinates. Scenes have recently been shot at Villa Jucker in Stresa as well as at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees. I'll certainly be watching for the film, which is expected to open in 2012.

Another thing I will be waiting for is the publication of a new book, set to arrive at the bookshop Cartoleria Libreria Leone (Via Pr. Tomaso, 18) very soon. The large tome, only in Italian, covers the history of the centuries-long tradition of fishing on Lago Maggiore. The book is heavily illustrated with old photographs and postcards, many from the private collection of Ivan Spadoni, who is not only a collector of the photographs but an expert on the subject, a practitioner of it as well, and a friend of mine.