Sixty-four years ago, aged 22, university law student, I planned a short holiday in Holland with a friend, Carlo Fasser. Never been there, I loved that land as I had a strong passion for Flemish 17th Century paintings and etchings. I was in my beginning as a photographer. I used a 6x6 analogic camera (Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, good quality, but not so handy) no project, no ideas what to do. I was surprisingly captured by the local materials, very fitting to the black and white film: the dark bricks of the buildings, the white of the windows’ and roof’s edges, the old wooden walls of villages houses; but also the boundless flat landscape, waters everywhere, silent and empty streets, some fresh life scenes in cities and villages, all captured my eyes. I printed a selection (some are still hanging in my home) and submitted 11 prints to the 1963 "Reportages e Racconti fotografici Città di Fermo" a severe competition (I was admitted to the exhibition with 42 out of 103 participants; among the winners Pepi Merisio, Mario Giacomelli, Mario Finocchiaro; Paul Almasy and Gianni Berengo Gardin were highlighted).