In which Sid and Doris visit a new country and invent the game of Panda-o.
The rally was slightly subdued as it left Rimini after last night’s brouhaha, especially after the Question Of The Bride’s Knickers had been settled by a couple of the more observant ladies.
Today’s mission was to cross and indeed learn how to spell the Appenines. And to visit another country, namely the Republic of San Marino. San Marino seems to have two main industries, one involves money and the other tourists. The tourists are encouraged to go to the Old Town Citadel which is on top of the hill and spend more money, which can be handily accessed from the banks lining the approach roads.
And in a scene straight out of the Italian Job, the entire rally glided (or scrabbled) its way up the steep slippery marble pedestrian streets into the topmost square. And down again, screech oops sorry about that table, I’m sure the legs will bend back.
Every day the cars go off in a different order and today’s was in reverse order of engine size so it’s Wait For Me, There’s A Mini Back Here! Still, we probably had the most fun over the extremely bumpy Italian roads with our rubber cone suspension zoom boing boing.
Although in the end the roads are starting to look the same, and thus the game of Panda-o was born. There are lots and lots of Fiat Pandas on the Italian roads so some complicated rules were required. One point for a coloured Panda, two for a 4×4 Panda, and minus one off the other person’s score if you spot a white one first. Lots of them are white. The Panda is very narrow and cheap to repair, making it ideal for the way that Italians drive on these narrow mountain roads.
Onwards to Il Borro. This hotel was created in some crazy post-dinner aristocratic discussion, when someone said “I say darling, that village of yours is simply divine apart from those smelly old peasants. Can’t you pay them to go away, and then you can fumigate their houses and we can stay in them and it would be a hoot!” So they did. We had a very nice room with a sitting area and a real working fireplace which was just as well because although we are no longer in the Dolomites it’s a bit parky in these hills.
Next day we drove out of Chianti and into Tuscany.
The regularities are going very nicely with 0, 0 and 1 seconds ha ha. There was also a couple of extremely odd tests which originally required a lot of narrow uphill hairpins on a private hotel estate.
Ha ha we thought, it’s the Mini’s turn to be fastest up the road. However the organisers had taken a second look at the very narrow bits and decided that the chance of doing some extreme bodywork reshaping was too high, so they were both shortened and the Mini whizzed its little heart out to come in several seconds after the Porsches.
The road sections also took us through the Pistoia valley. This is a quite remarkable area – the whole valley floor seems to be dedicated to growing trees. And because they are being grown to sell to people (like, I guess, people wanting to build a Chelsea show garden) trees of one type are grown together. It was difficult to capture from Mini-level, so here’s one photo I took of the Palm Tree Zone, and someone else’s drone picture.
Oh yes, and a most impressive limestone (?) quarry.
We were so busy marvelling at this that Sid very nearly drove the Mini into a rally-ending hole in the road. Peripheral vision still working then.
Onwards and downwards to the Mediterranean coast and another very elegant seaside hotel in Santa Margherita Ligure. There’s always room for a Mini, so the Mini was squeezed into a prime slot right outside the door of the hotel, and we took the opportunity to give it a wash. Some people like to keep their cars covered in rally grime, which can be a good look on a vintage car, but frankly a grubby Mini just looks a bit unkempt. If you love it, leather it, we say.
Off to eat Leetle Feeshes, the classic food of choice when you are in a seaside town.