The Alfa Romeo

This year we rented a car for three weeks. The first week we drove from Florence (letter A on the map) to Orvieto (B), a relatively short drive. The second week we did a lot of driving, from Orvieto to Sorrento (C) for Easter weekend. From Sorrento we drove on to Missanello in southern Italy (D) and then, after some days with Annette’s family, on to San Martino in Pensilis (E) on the opposite coast to see what we could learn about Michael’s family. The third week we drove from San Martino to Montepulciano (F), another fairly long drive north and then west through the Apennine Mountains. We’ll finish the trip by returning the car to Florence this weekend.

Three week trip in the Alfa Romeo Giuliettta

Since we had lots of luggage and since we planned to do quite a bit of driving, we wanted to rent a comfortable car. OK, that was just an excuse! I wanted to have some fun driving so I asked (begged) for an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, a car about the size of a Toyota Corolla but a car that really wants to go!

The Alfa we rented is a 160hp turbo-diesel with a six speed, a tight suspension, responsive steering, and great tires. The car has been a lot of fun to drive except in Sorrento which was absolutely jammed with people and cars. It was no fun there surviving the search for a parking garage.

Fiat builds the Alfa Romeo in Italy. As everyone knows, Fiat now owns Chrysler and the lineup of Chrysler products is changing. One on the changes will involve an old name on a new car. The old name is Dodge Dart. The new car will be some kind of version of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. See this.

More fun when it's moving!

Google Maps says that our trip was in the neighborhood of 1,000 miles and all of the highway miles were fun. And, interestingly, the car turned a little over 45 miles per gallon of diesel. Shocking for a car that’s so much fun.

Maybe this is the Mazda Miata that I put off buying 20 years ago. Is it too late for a mid-life crisis?