Tucked away behind the mountains of Lombardy, the tiny Lago d'Iseo, famed retreat of Italian notables, appears to the eye of passing aviators like a single glistening twisted tear upon the scarred visage of a giant. Last week a salute of 21 battleship guns boomed across this diminutive strip of water. Tourists afloat in ornamental near-gondolas, all but toppled overboard in fright. Shading their eyes and looking about for a super-dreadnaught which was nowhere to be seen, they marveled.
That night the concierges of numerous hotels explained. The Duke of Aosta, gracious cugino...