@chiara_c -- Sorry you are having an issue with swipe; that certainly isn't expected. Does the same thing happen if you create a new swipe and try again? Can you share the images here so we can take a look? We have seen some rare issues with image file metadata that can sometimes cause images not to load.
> Unfortunately with the swipe block, images cannot be embedded using a link.. this would have make the images lighter within the storymap.
Actually, the opposite is true. 🙂 When you upload an image, the story builder does a lot of optimization and creates and caches compressed and resized images depending on the device the reader is using. When you link to an image on the web there is no optimization at all, so the full-sized image is loaded all the time, which can be slow especially on mobile devices or devices with slower connections.
Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps