Another early start for us as we had a visit to Turin
planned. This was not part of the standard programme of the Italian Job,
as only a few cars would be allowed to go to the very special place we were
going. We set off at 8.00 a.m having been told it would take three hours
to get there from Imola. It actually took four hours - and the film was
right about the traffic in Turin. Also they've got a lot of tunnels and one way
systems.
We were travelling with Rosie and Dale who were representing
John Cooper Garages, and getting a bit worried we wouldn't make it on
time. Rosie decided to ask a policeman. We ended up being
escorted to our destination by them. However they didn't actually
take us right there, just told us to turn left and that the building we
wanted was right opposite, which it was. However the sign for the
building was to the right, so we turned right - into a one way street
going the other way!
We reversed back into the side street and sorted ourselves
out and suddenly heard a mass tooting of airhorns from the rest of the
Minis who'd been waiting for us to arrive. Apparently they'd all
seen us heading the wrong way - how embarrassing! We quickly joined
them and headed towards a ramp which was to take us to our destination.
Up the ramp and the Minis suddenly seemed to get very
excited. They sped upwards going round and round, tooting for all
they were worth, and it was extremely noisy, the tunnel made a perfect
echo chamber for their horns.
It seemed that the spiral would never end, and then suddenly we came
out at the top...
...and there we were - on the roof of the Fiat
Factory. I don't think the following pics need any commentary,
except to say that they don't really show how steep the banking on the
edges really is. At one time we were driving round three abreast,
and when you were at the top edge it felt as if the car was going to roll
over if you were going slowly. It felt much safer going fast!
I was lucky enough to do all the driving as Karen was taking
photographs. Whooppeee!
After all the excitement was over we went back down the tunnel and into
the Fiat Factory itself. It is in fact a luxury hotel now, and we
had a buffet lunch there.
We then set off to head towards Nice to meet up with the rest of the
Jobbers who had been making their way there. It meant we had quite a
lot of miles to cover to get there and we took the pretty route over the
mountains, so it was dark well before we crossed the French border and saw
the coastline of Monte Carlo. We had planned to use the coastal road
to get to Nice, but as it was getting late we picked up the motorway
instead. We eventually found our hotel (after driving round the
airport a few times first). It was unfortunate that the Jobbers had
been split into two hotels, the Holiday Inn and the Novotel, and typically
our friends were in a different one to us. However they had waited
for us and we got a couple of cabs into Nice and found a nice restaurant
right by the harbour. Back at the hotel we planned our route to
Annecy for the next day over a few glasses of the Italian wine we'd picked
up on the rally - the bars had closed by the time we got back!
