It was too personal to mention in the obituary, but I wanted to record a great favour that Alessandro did for me.

He was on the BMJ's editorial board when I was the editor, and he was hugely important in making Clinical Evidence available in Italy. I talked several times at meetings he organised in Italy, and so I got to know him well.

I mentioned to him once that I was planning a short sabbatical in Venice to write a book, and he said that he though he could help me find a place to stay. It was because of him that I spent eight of the best weeks of my life, staying in a 15th century palazzo in Venice. I sat at a long table in a room filled with flowers that had a balcony, a view of the back of Christ standing on the top of Santa Maria di Miracoli, and contained a grand piano, a lifesize Pieta, and a model of a Venetian galleon.

My life has never been quite the same since.

Thank you, Alessandro.

Competing interests: I'me one of the authors of the editorial and a friend of Alessandro