116 replies to this topic

[cosimo]

Flash, I drove a Fiat Punto on one of our trips to Italy (including Perugia). It indeed is an awful car. absolutely no power. Your trip is bringing back memories of our trip to that area. Orvietto is a great little town. We stayed at the Brufani in Perugia.

[ds968]

Hey, the Fiat is fun on a totally different level and the novelty of its shortcomings must be enjoyed to the max, for what they are.. Besides, unless you've driven a Trabant you can't possibly appreciate the marvel that is Fiat

Bob, I hear there are now a few drive-trough pizza ( one choice only though ; margherita ) places along various autostrade - pull up in that mini-Fiat, order a pizza and tell the cook-waiter-cashier that you want it cut in only four slices instead of eight because you don't think you can possibly eat that many pieces.. just to see how he or she reacts. What, it's fun to watch most of the teenage waiters at pizza places here get a puzzled look for a good 10 seconds actually trying to make sense out of that request

[lbpesq]

My first car was a 1967 Fiat 850 Coupe. My brother had an X19. If yours hasn't broken down yet, Flash, it seems the company has made great strides!

Fix It Again Tony.

Bill

[Cloud9...68]

Funny, I had an 850 once, and my brother had an X19. The X19 was a cool car; the 850, not so much...

[rxter]

Hilarious. I've read 3 or 4 reviews on the little Fiat. But I can say without equivocation that none of them were close to as good as yours Bob. If the engineering thing doesn't work out.....

[Rap]

In my dark days I drove a Strada. No heat no ac in DC. No guts no nothing. It did work for the proverbial point A to point b though!

[flash]

lol - thanks guys - it has been comical to be sure

i can't upload pics here - some sort of barrier - i'll do it from rome

[gbarrier]

just arrived in Florence this morning. Cool little town. See why you like it. Now to find that pizza.

[flash]

ooh - i found the best leather shop too - i think it was davino or david or something like that - very cool

extremely limited access for the remainder of the trip, as we are on the ship - about $1.50 a minute for internet - updates will likely have to wait

[AJG]

just arrived in Florence this morning. Cool little town. See why you like it. Now to find that pizza.

It's the birth place of the Renaissance! Cool little town indeed.

Andy

[ds968]

So when is the return home date ?

[flash]

back in the saddle on the 19th

should have better internet access in athens tomorrow and the next day

[ds968]

good timing, you'll miss the clusterf*ck in the greater Los Angeles to SanDiego "carmaggedon" this weekend - heck, even if you had come back this evening, it would have still taken you until the 19th to get home

[banditsc]

If you stay a little longer you might be living in a whole new state...

[flash]

???

the only news i've seen is cnn - lots of stuff on phone hacking and the murder "trial", but that's about it

[banditsc]

http://latimesblogs....e-meetings.html

[flash]

lol - yeah - that's been bounced around for years - started way back in the days of hetch hetchy

i also knew about the 405 closure - what a mess that will be - thankfully it should not affect me

[ds968]

Someone please 'splain this to me : why do eleven friggin' miles of hwy 405 have to be shut down for the sole purpose of reconstructing a single overpass bridge ?! There are entry/exits at nearly every quarter mile intervals north and south of that spot which I can't imagine needs more that a half mile in each direction for construction trucks, crews, etc to access and work, so...wtf is the rest of the ten mile shut down for ?

Edited by ds968, 16 July 2011 - 08:56 AM.

[DaveN]

The point is to create the appearance that your tax dollars are hard ar work; basic marketing 101 If they only closed 1/2 mile you would wonder why it cost $3,000,000 but 10, now that's reasonable

[Cloud9...68]

I hadn't heard about the southern California secession thing, but I did see a show on the History channel which mentioned that there was a serious effort in the early/mid 20th century to create a new state out of far northern California (and I think part of southern Oregon) called Jefferson.