Alfa Museum in Arese; Rental Bliss

["Barrett, Jim" <JiBarrett@xxxxxxxx>]

Esteemed Digestibles:

Shaun asked:
>  Does any body have the address and or any contact information on the
>  Alfa Factory+Museum?

The previous replies, especially George Graves', were perfect. They also
triggered my feeble memory to finally send a post to the Digest describing
our good fortune to be there last month. 

The museum is nothing less than wonderful (and bigger, better and filled
with more exciting machinery than the Ferrari counterpart), and, if you
believe what we were told while there, should be seen soon. Although I hope
this is only an Italian version of an urban myth, we were advised that the
office buildings and museum were going to be torn down, and another museum
built elsewhere. This new museum would have fewer cars on display, and place
a greater emphasis on education and accessibility to children. There was
also mention that the site would become a commercial office park. Obviously,
I reeeeaaaallllly hope this isn't true.

I also must mention our extreme good fortune and/or alignment of the planets
while there: with a bit of coaxing at the Avis counter at Malpensa airport,
we drove off in a light metallic green (verde borealis) 156 wagon. This car
was a blast to drive! With four adults and their luggage, and while cruising
on the Autostrada effortlessly between 165-170 kph, the 1.9 L JTD (turbo
diesel) never got less than 30 mpg, and mostly while using the air
conditioning. Like everyone else from the US of A that has driven one, we,
too, would love to have one here (including the JTD motor, which lacked our
familiar rocks-in-a-soda-can sounds).

Cheers!

Jim Barrett
Huntington Beach, CA USA
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided