Hi to everybody!
I'm a gemmologist and mineralogist. In 1992 I took my degree in Natural Sciences in Milan, Italy, where I live. Unfortunately in Italy it's almost impossible to be a good scientific researcher, however... In the same year I took my gemmological diplomas in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, where I attended to all of the courses (coloured gemstones, diamond grading, organic gemstones and commercial gemmology).
When I started collecting minerals I was but an 8-year-old child. It was August 1973. My father convinced me to have a trip to Val Formazza, Piemonte, Italy, with him and with an American family living that time in Italy (the family-chief was a job-friend of my father himself), so that "I could practise and improve my English" and because "they liked to see me" etc. I got astonished when the youngsters of this family took some quartz crystals from the ground, and I liked those natural perfect crystal forms. Moreover I got involved by the fact that time I could "play" with a TRUE crystal and not with miniature soldiers or animals and so on. I mean: the quartz crystal I had in my hands was a true quartz crystal, while a plastic animal I played with was a miniature: that was the big difference for me.
When I was 14 I realized this couldn't be just a game, but it must be something more serious. It was a very happy sensation for me. Now I have an almost 9'000 pieces in my collection, which regards minerals, gemstones (natural and synthetic), systematic mineralogy, rocks, and even shells, fossils and some archaeological residuals and also sands from particular places (deserts, rivers, beach localities etc.). I would like to tell you something more, including my bike trips all over Europe (I love nature, therefore there is nothing better than travelling INSIDE nature!!!). Many of these trips are also mineralogical, I visited many mines and quarries too!
There is time to tell you much much more!!!
greetings from Italy by Riccardo.