If inspiration was the theme of Kate Ziegler's first trip to Europe last month, then aspiration will mark her second journey across the Pond.

Essen, Germany, does not hold quite the same appeal, perhaps, as Rome and the Vatican City, but the world champion is there for a pilgrimage of a different kind: on the road to Beijing, the teenager who this summer confined Janet Evans's 1,500m world record to history with a hammering 15:42, is out to feel the worth of Laure Manaudou's world marks over 32 and 60 short laps.

Friday marks the start of it all, and Ziegler's intention is to have as much fun as she did in Rome. She told SwimNews: 'My trip to Rome was fantastic. I love Italy! It was beautiful and so much fun. I didn't really know what to expect because I had never been to Europe, but it was better than anything I imagined.'

Ziegler, coached by Ray Benecki (read more about the partnership here), goes on to say that she was sad not to have had more time to be a tourist. Seems she didn't do so bad, though: 'I saw the Colosseum (good for the fighting spirit), Pantheon (good for checking out where you fit in the realms of greatness), Piaza Narvona (a fine arena for a prospective Olympian, the site of the Circus of the Emperor Domitian and a place in Middle Ages of games, jousting, horse-racing, and water festivals), St. Peters (grand for the calling), Trevi Fountain (good for lovers of water: the fountain was designed to show off to best effect the acquaduct of the Acqua Vergine built by Marco Vipsiano Agrippa in 19BC to supply water to the thermal baths which he built close to the Pantheon), and a few other places.'

Says Ziegler: 'I really want to go back and see more. Hopefully, I will be able to vacation there some time.'

The swimmer did get to swim a little, too, in Rome, though not, sadly, at the 2009 world-championships venue, which could find no room for the world champion.

Ziegler, of course, is not the only world-beating freestyler who has not enjoyed best dealings with some members of the Italian swim family of late: L'Équipe reports today on the continuing saga of Manaudou and those who hosted the Olympic champion for several weeks back in a troubled summer following one of the finest world-championship performances by a woman in swimming history, at Melbourne 2007.

To cut a long story short, LaPresse Club, with the backing of Arena, it seems, is pursuing an action against Manaudou's entourage for defamation, both in France and Italy - for claiming, it is alleged, that they somehow forced the swimmer to sell the rights to her image in a contractual deal.

As in all debates, there is likely to be light and dark on both sides but it strikes me as a little odd that a major swimming sponsor should play any part in a process that can only serve to damage one of the finest female swimmers the world has ever seen (whatever her alleged behaviour).

L'Équipe says that Arena boss Cristiano Portas had 'not closed the doors on an out-of-court settlement'. It would suffice for Jean-Luc Manaudou to retract all the accusations he is alleged to have made. Manaudou, the swimmer, says Portas, has been 'badly advised'. You can sense the frustration of Portas in the newspaper article, and his feelings are not hard to fathom.

That said, the best advice that Arena, a company aiming to spread its waterwings worlwide, may be to shun the rules of business and litigation and instead take a leaf out of John Lennon's book: let it be. No shame for Arena, nor for Manaudou. There are many more fish in the sea, and if this particular one, no matter how big she is, no longer wishes to swim with the shoal, let her go. All the more energy, then, to concentrate on those who would wish to wear Arena products with a smile on their face.