Alfa Museum in Arese + Rant

[Keith Ahern <keith@domain.elided>]

Hi all,

This email has no purpose other than to make you all jealous :-)

I've just got back from a weekend in italy where I visited the Alfa
Romeo Museum in Arese, the Ferrari Gallery & factory in Maranello and
the wonderful village of Sant Agata - home of Lamborghini, a church and
one shop.

As soon as I get the photo's scanned I will be making a web page about
my trip.

If you are thinking of going NOW is a good time, the tourist season
hasn't fully started, the climate is perfect (although beginning to get
hot  - no air conditioning) and airline tickets are cheap (I saw as low
as $350 to Milan from San Francisco).

Driving in italy is a pretty scary experience - more on that later.
Also when there's no speed limits (well there is - 130 kph - but
everyone ignores it) driving becomes a viable alternative to air travel
!  I was cruising at 160-180 kph (100 - 115 mph) on quiet autostrada and
still having my doors blown off by 156's and Audi A8's !

Unfortunately the calling ahead 'trick' for reserving an Alfa didn't
work for me, probably because it was easter and the demand for rental
cars was very high.  I ended up with a Seat Toledo - basically a
Volkswagen Jetta with a hint of spanish flair.  It was that or a Nissan
...(*no flames please*)

The museum is amazing, on the outside there is no indication that its a
museum - it looks like a an office building.  Inside there are 4/5
floors of alfas from the very first (1910) to the latest spider/gtv/156
(the 166 was in the main lobby).

More on the Museum in the impending web page.

Now a comment on the state of the motor industry.

I know I'm biased towards italian cars but there is definitely a
revolution in auto design happening in europe - principally in Italy and
to a certain extent in France and Germany.  Unfortunatley the U.S. is
not seeing any of this.  Notable examples of exciting and innovative
styling were the following:

* Alfa Spider/GTV - the more I saw them the more I loved them
* Fiat Spider - ditto
* Lancia Y10 - aggressive little hatchback
* Fiat Multipa - bizzare people carrier
* Peugeot 106 - a snarling stylish hatchback.

And to a lesser extent:

* Smart Citycar - just plain cool.
* Audi TT - beautiful (ok  - the U.S. gets this)
* Ford Puma
* Opel Tigra

The above look like NOTHING available here in the US where we're
subjected to the generic marchmallow blob consortium idiot mobile e.g.
ford taurus/honda accord/neon thingy/bmw 3-5-7/chrysler etc.

Its a very sad state of affairs.

OK, rant over, everybody back to their elliptical keyboards, mice and of
course, cars.

Keith Ahern
73 Spider - vroooom!
85 Spider (for sale soon!)

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