Stories Riccardo Zecchini

It’s always a joy when some of your best friends is going to move somewhere else. You can’t wait the day when you will explore the places where he is now spending his days. Back in June I finally managed to visit my friends living in the UK and together we did a wonderful journey across some uncivilized lands. It has been really an adventure. We started our trip from Scotland—going around the Highlands without a special destination—and we then come back down to England. Here we had the chance to visit Crosby Beach: totally a stunning place.

Two days fully spent staring at these wonderful, irregular lines. Each point your eyes could reach was gently covered by a white blanket of snow and the sky, perfectly painted with a smooth blue, was the purest background you could imagine for those scattered irregularities. The Mt Blanc/Monte Bianco is a silent mountain, it crosses the boundaries between France and Italy and you don't even notice it.

La montagna è selettiva. Se non sei ancorato bene, se non stringi forte l'appiglio, ti scrolla giù e ti fa rotolare verso il mare. Opera una selezione severa: chi resiste agli scossoni resta lassù, chi si stacca scivola via. Ma forse è solo una questione di sensibilità. – M. Corona, Le voci del bosco

I rapidly tested the new version of mapbox.com, I was very curious about it! It is such an incredible tool/service to build maps and they are growing very fast. I couldn't wait. After some quick test trying building a new project I noted down some issues I experienced:

The summer is over. Working time begins, cities restart to fill with stress and days are getting shorter. This is a perfect scenario to go back to the Dolomites exploring some new paceful places, walking all day long surrounded by these beautiful mountains. Everytime you are back it's like your first time, you can't believe to your eyes and you're lost in a timeless space. This round we ventured between Odle and Puez Mountains, everyday the trails were almost empty and we met very few people, I really can't explain what you feel being up there. At the end of each day – happy but physically exhausted – we arrived in warm shelters where we could take a break and eat fabulous dinners; unfortunately the weather suddenly changed and on the third day we had to stop our tour. It was a pity to leave the Dolomites but randomness is an important element of a journey through the mountains.

With my friends we drove about 600 km to spend a day at the Highline meeting in Monte Piana, Dolomites. This was our first experience in such an unbelievable place and we couldn't miss it. A wonderful flat spot on the top of the mountain, with a nice view on the Tre Cime and the Dolomites group. Here Austrians and Italians fought very hard during the first World War and today lots of ruins still remain, it was very intense to think of those days. We really enjoyed this place, the spirit of the event and the crazy falls we did on the lines.

Finally during the summer we managed to explore Val di Mello, a really beautiful valley in northern Italy. A place in which for several years me and my friends could only visit during Melloblocco, a climbing meeting held in May always remembered for its rainy days. But even if we went there during August it hasn't spare us some day of walkings under the rain, cold days filled with hot tea and dinners inside our tents. Not easy to believe but this is Val di Mello: always rainy, but always magical. We spent there almost a week in an extraordinary atmosphere. During the last days the sun came out and we could see another side of Val di Mello, bright colours, audiocious kids and happy families coming here for a pic nic. Not only highlanders as we are.

Technically it's always full

Working on spreads for C86

Italyc

Christmas dinner

A web page is feeling lonely too, visit that poor page.

My christmas postcard for ISIA, see others here: http://buonefesteisia.tumblr.com/

Titillium Web Font

Life lesson learnt from responsive web design. (For the nerds out there).

Letterpress at school

Website now online: www.riccardozecchini.com