What is the best place in the world to go diving?
Everybody ask me that. My answer is invariably - the last one I've visited. But it's actually a question that has no aswer, because every place is different.
Are the Maldives more beautiful than Paris? Probably, if you are looking for sand and sun and fishes. But if you're after arts, history and nouvelle cousine, then the atolls can be a bit disappointing.
The same applies underwater: it's all a matter of what you're after.
And yet, although there is no "best place", I confess to anyone who's interested that my favourite is the Mediterranean sea.
Ok, I may be partial because it's Home so I know it much better than any other seas. And yet... tell me where else can you swim with sharks, dive with tunas and swordfish, watch red and yellow seafans and the animal community that thrives around them, dive in the Straits of Messina, where a 7-knot current bring life to everything it touches, and sweeps the depths carrying deep-water species - sixgills as well as long-nose razorfish or hatchet fishes - to diving depth. Huge drop-offs where seafans grow and fish schools meet, shallow bays where sharks congregate to mate and give birth to their young, ancient Roman towns, marbles, mosaics, columns lying in just a few meters of water? Sorry. No tropical sea - or any other place in the world - can provide that!
All right, all right, I got lyrical and carried away. So watch for yourself! Here's a little gallery that will be updated in time.