Transportation

This last bit is probably only of interest to my brother. We both being interested in cars there were some automotive oddities that I wanted to share.

Fiat doesn't own Italy any more. While there were still a lot around, there were just as many cars of other manufacturers. Almost everything was very small though. Essentially it was a country full of Geo Metro sized cars. Every once in a while you'd see a Mitsubisi Montero or Land Rover Discovery and they seemed huge.

First, here's my vantage point on the bus.

Here is a Fiat 500. Dad says these things cost $500 when we lived there. When we were kids these were about the only cars any Italians owned (many didn't own any car). There were so many of them I always wondered how they could tell them apart in parking lots. Alas, I only saw maybe 4 of them the entire trip. Our little rambler dwarfed these tiny cars. You can see that the top of the scooter is nearly as tall as the car.

I remember there being an interesting story in the Stars and Stripes about a couple of Italians that had tried to straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa with their Fiat on a Saturday night. After having a bit too much vino they tied a rope to the tower and the other end to their bumper. The next morning all the police found was the bumper.

Finally, here is commuter parking in Florence. Scooters are still very popular and they have a lot of cool styles. I only noticed a few motorcycles while I was there.

I came out of my Hotel in Florence one evening and walked down past a bar. Out front was "scooter gang" standing around their scooters with their "scooter babes". Don't get me wrong - these were definitely not the kind of guys that you would mess with, but it was quite amusing and I had to keep a straight face until I got past them.