Ferrari Chairman Montezemolo Helps Americans

Thanks to Gianluca, one of my tourism master students, I heard a charming story of Italian chivalry.  The star of this story was a certain Luca Cordera di Montezemolo, who, when not acting as an impromptu taxi driver, runs Italian sports car maker, Ferrari.

A brief hunt around the Italian internet unearthed a Corriere della Sera article on the Ferrari chairman‘s act of selflessness.

After having had a meal with friends, Montezemolo overhead the restaurant owner explaining to two American tourists that he had been unable to find a taxi for them.  Wasting no time, the Ferrari chairman chipped in and offered to take the two Americans to their hotel.

And so he did. … Continue Reading

An Interesting Car Month in Milan.

First, I caught sight of a very sleek matt-black Maserati down in the centre, only to learn afterwards that it is one of a kind and belongs to none other than Lapo Elkann who is one of the Fiat clan. Presumably Lapo was at the helm. The car was being driven rather briskly too, I might add.

Next, down by the Castello, I espied what may well turn out to be the farmers’ supercar, and distant relation of the humble tractor. Well, they are both diesel powered, or rather can be. This car, you see, was the stunning Audi R8, which has also been built with a fire breathing diesel engine. However I don’t think was the agricultural version of this particular supercar, but it did sport German licence plates. Didn’t sound like a tractor anyway.

And, then, I saw the new Jaguar XF in a showroom near to where this non-supercar driving English teacher catches his bus. Now, how can I put this, well, this new Jag looks an awful lot like a Lexus. Not a problem you might be heard to utter. No, but for the fact that I’ve always considered that most of Toyota’s finest look extremely bland. The white paint work of this particular one did not seem to do it any favours either.

Although my rather party pooping observation may delude you, by all accounts it is a very good car, at least Top Gear thought so. Still a shame it looks like a Lexus though.

For a rather more jazzy presentation of this new Jaguar, unless you are epileptic (the flashing of the flash presentation is a wee bit overwhelming…), click here and select the country where you find yourself.

Last, but by no means least, while we were coming back from our meal out last night, we followed a stretch-Hummer limo. Now, if you know what a Hummer is, you will know that these leviathans of the road are anything but small when they are the normal versions, but this thing was gargantuan. It must have been at least 10 metres long. Just the thing for the Fiat Panda sized parking spaces that are, more often than not, on offer in Milan.

Just to cap things off, this giant of the road appeared to have, as far as I could make out through the blacked out windows, those constantly colour changing fibre optic type lights beloved of Christmas trees affixed to the inside of the roof. Very nice, especially if you wish to convey the impression that you are a high-powered New York pimp (on holiday in Milan), I suppose.

What an interesting car-month February turned out to be.

DIESEL

Nope, I’m not going to waffle on about eco friendly fuels, but in my continuing micro-attempt to raise the feel-good factor for Italy in these troubled times, I’m going to have a look at an Italian brand, which, at first, for quite a few years, I did not know was Italian. Not a surprise; I did not even know how to pronounce Versace until a more fashion conscious friend corrected me. … Continue Reading

The Power of Italy

In these troubled times in Italy, I’m going to buck the trend and have a look at something which puts Italy in the kind of light it should be in permanently. That something is the Italian car company, which I regard as being the Italian equivalent of Aston Martin. That company is Maserati. … Continue Reading