James Bond is set to take Lake Garda by storm in coming weeks, with filming on the latest 007 flick and celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of the legendary spy's creator, Ian Fleming.
Brooding British actor Daniel Craig, in his second outing as the fictional MI6 agent, will shoot several action scenes around the lake for the 22nd Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.
The most spectacular sequence of all will see Bond's classic Aston Martin tearing away from the scene of a collision at breakneck speed, leaving behind a car and a truck.
The truck then explodes into flames and ends up in the lake - although in real life a specially designed net will catch the vehicle before it hits the water.
The Bond crew, currently in Tuscany filming another Italian section of the movie, will start working on the shores of Lake Garda on April 14.
The 11 days of shooting at the lakeside will coincide with a series of events celebrating the life and work of Fleming (1908-1964), who used his own experiences in the British naval intelligence service as the background for his spy novels.
A travelling exhibition arrives in Garda on April 10, featuring a wealth of material about the author's life and his most famous creation.
Posters, first edition books, photographs and memorabilia have been pieced together for the show.
After publishing his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1953, Fleming wrote another 11 books and two collections of short stories featuring the MI6 agent.
Some 15 years after his death, publishers began commissioning a series of continuation novels, dozens of which are now in print. Most of these were written by John Gardner, between 1981 and 1996, and Raymond Benson.
Benson, who wrote six Bond novels and four short stories between 1997 and 2002, will travel from Texas to attend the Garda celebrations and discuss his vision of the smooth-talking superspy.
''Benson restored the original spirit of Bond,'' commented the Italian translator of James Bond novels, Andrea Carlo Cappi.
''From a handsome, indestructible figure he is once again the 007 envisioned by Fleming, a hero that also encounters defeat''.
Another eagerly awaited moment during the celebrations will be a talk by the stunt designer and second unit director of Quantum of Solace, Dan Bradley.
Bradley, who won widespread acclaim for his work on the Jason Bourne movie trilogy, is scheduled to share behind-the-scenes snippets and discuss the Garda set during an April 20 meeting.
This is the Bond crew's second stint in Italy for Quantum of Solace. Craig and the team paid a brief visit to the Tuscan town of Siena last August to film sections of the hectic bareback Palio race.
Although the details of the storyline are being kept under tight wraps, the Palio is expected to serve as a backdrop to a scene in which Bond pursues the villain, played by French actor Mathieu Amalric, across Siena's rooftops by foot.
This is reportedly part of a longer chase sequence, which sees Craig racing through Siena's narrow, cobbled streets before later descending into an underground network of tunnels, known as ''bottini''.
Italy is one of several glamorous locations to feature in Quantum of Solace, which is scheduled for release at the start of November.
Although the movie takes its name from one of Fleming's short stories, it features an original storyline.
The plot picks up an hour after the end of the last instalment, Casino Royale (2006), and sees Bond searching for answers after the woman he loved betrayed him.
