Italy

Lake Como is famous worldwide for its beauty, the charm of its ancient villas, stunning lake views, iconic village of Bellagio and romantic setting. Under its surface, Lake Como hides hundreds of hidden treasures: ancient wrecks and incredible stories. One of those wrecks lies in the northern corner of the lake.

This is the incredible story of the French trawler that was turned into the German submarine fighter UJ-2208 during WWII and sunk by a British submarine off the coast of Genoa in 1944. Nowadays, the UJ-2208 lies on the seabed at a depth of 108m, covered in Mediterranean mud, fishing nets, shrimp and oysters.

In my line of work as a dive industry professional, I attend a lot of dive shows and get to meet a lot of people, most of them nice and interesting in various ways. It was also at a dive show in Italy, many years ago, that I first met Andrea Donati and his partner, Daniela Spaziani, of Ponza Diving.

When considering underwater photography, we usually think about images of wonderful coral reefs, colourful fish, clear waters and undersea landscapes. In fact, 70 percent of our planet is covered by water on its surface, and, even though 97 percent of this is saltwater, the remaining three percent is freshwater in rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and groundwater.

Michael Menduno details the highlights of the various presentations given during the sixth biannual international Rebreather Meeting, which took place 1-5 May 2019 on Ponza Island in Italy.

The sixth biannual international Rebreather Meeting took place 1-5 May 2019 on Ponza Island in Italy. Peter Symes reports.

Talking about this animal is simply a pleasure, almost as much as meeting it and relating to it underwater. It is satisfying to spend some time putting my thoughts into words about the octopus, as I am a diver in love with this extraordinary creature—a mollusc that reasons.

The sinking of USS LST 349, which was heading to Naples from Anzio, Italy, occurred in February 1944. It happened during a severe storm, in which turbulent seas pushed the ship against the cliffs at Punta Papa on Ponza Island. Even though the people of Ponza made a great effort in the rescue operations, the death toll was heavy.

Moregallo is one of the most beautiful and well-known sites on Lake Como, located in the Italian province of Lecco, within walking distance of the community of Valmadrera.

It was early morning and our dive team was in the process of loading our gear into the car when my friendly neighbour, Walter, greeted me, asking where we were heading so early.