A Civic Reception by the Fiat 500 Club in Garlenda, Italy!

So greatly revered are Lang and Bev Kidby for their epic journey around the world in a Fiat 500, that club members welcomed them back to their small city with a civic reception!

Bewildered motorists were held up as we paraded through the narrow streets of the 700 strong medieval town of Garlenda.

Leading the way, a very accurate 25 member marching band. Lang and Bev followed in their 1945 Chevy Utility with Dale and I hanging off either side running boards. The five Jeeps covered with Australian and New Zealand flags and loaded with other convoyers slowly processed under the banner "Welcome Australian and New Zealand Convoyers" and up to the Fiat 500 museum. Another banner paying tribute to Lang and Bev was hanging outside the museum. The museum was opened, approriate speeches made, and several little 500's joined our vehicles for a photo shoot in front of the museum.

BLOOPER OF THE TRIP

After entreaties from John Hedges (who is known for getting all misty eyed on such emotionally overwhelming occasions such as this) for me to sing Waltzing Matilda, I decided to let it rip with the National Anthemn (after first asking the band leader). After two lines the band burst forth with another marching tune directly behind me, so I abandoned!

Cocktails, spumante, soft drinks, pizza, pastries, chips etc were provided for all by the Fiat 500 Italian Car Club and gave us a chance to socialise with the band and a couple of Carabinieri (soldier police). We all then piled into the local Tennis Club Rooms where they catered for the best quality meal on the trip so far. More brief speeches including one from the Deputy Mayor (a very young female lawyer). An interpretator (Enrica Scotto) was present. They were worrying about catering for such a big crowd, but did an excellent job and everyone enjoyed themselves. I appreciated the opportunity to get to sit by an English speaking local like Wilmy, to ply her with questions about what we are seeing along the countryside, thanks Wilmy.

Our thanks to Ivo Barbacini and Yves (founding members), Domenico Romano, Sandro (President) and Wilmy Scarpa, Silvio Pittoli (deputy Mayor) Fabrizio Amerio (community organizer).

TEMPERATURE IN OUR CAB!

I expect you're wondering how it's going travelling along in our truck?

At times it's quite moderate (congenial) and at others, its extremely heated! Slanging matches are common and we've both learnt to use the big "F". However, I'm comforted by Bev's assuring me that the same sort of thing goes on in their cab. David Mottram added, "It's a wonder anyone comes out of our cab alive at times."

It's quite noisy with the high pitch whine and the low pitch groan of the transfer box; communication, including the UHF, happens when Dale backs off and the gears stop meshing. "I wish I'd tried the transfer from the other spare G I Joe, " says Dale as it jumps out of gear once again when lugging up a slope in third gear.

But the oil dipping engine is brilliant, it's only used 1 litre of oil in 3,500 kms. I think we have some of the most comfortable sprung seats too. They were newly reupholstered for the trip. The driver's however, slopes out the door, so now and again you have to lift yourself up and plop down again a bit to the left!

We have been blessed with beautiful moderate warm and sunny weather since crossing the border into Greece. A sudden, very short lived, heavy shower in the mountains sent jeep occupants diving for side panels!

TUNNELS AND BRIDGES

Most of the 120 kms roadway on the Autostrada travelled between Savona and Tollina (Turin) is elevated, so you either travel on bridges or tunnels. The day before we noticed there was a section which was three tunnels high. It's a great sight looking out at the raised sections dotting the heavily treed hillsides.

Harvesting and planting are well underway at all levels of production. Individuals have good home gardens. White flowering acacias line the Italian countryside at this time.

DAVID AND MAGGIE MOTTRAM

If anyone's having bad luck, it's the Mottrams! They were stung with cash theft twice in Istanbul, suffered a broken spring in Crete, then Maggie lost her $200 watch when it dropped from her lap as she opened the door to pay for the toll on the autostrada.

David was worried about driving around with the broken spring and fell victim to an opportunist hanging around on the docks at Pireaus. He offered to help David with the repair, and got David to pay for a cab to something like a Greek version of the RACQ. He then rang a tow truck, for which David had to pay 50 euro for the call out, and then told David he needed money for his time and telephone calls. He wouldn't accept 20 euro, but he did accept 30 euro!

Maggie's very theatrical. She was describing how they had misplaced a note (containing directions to a repair shop) she thought she'd left on a counter in front of the toll booths. She said she was darting between lanes frantically looking about everywhere, dodging oncoming cars, "like a headless chicken." This is exactly how I feel everytime I try to cross a road, with cars coming at you in every direction; say a quick prayer and try a little darting back and forth dance, and express extreme relief when you get to the other side!

Thanks to the help of the Italian Military Jeep Club back in Florence, the Mottrams were able to get help with their rear spring problem firstly by finding them a workshop. The workshop couldn't locate a replacement spring, so welded a plate over the cracked spring, after pulling it into line. They effectively lost a day having to stay over in Florence, but were treated to a privately conducted night time tour by Luca from 9.30pm to 1.00pm. The club also wanted to treat David and Maggie by paying their night's stay in a hotel whilst the truck was in the workshop, but David had already paid the tab. Our thanks to everyone from the club who did their best to help David and Maggie.

A NEAR MISS!

Honestly, I don't know how we've all managed to stay traffic incident free. Travelling this way in these trucks is dangerous, constantly trying to push our way through to keep up regardless of traffic lights, stop signs and intersections. The nearest incident so far, was hearing the screeching and bang of the impact behind us knowing that the jeeps were following. Ken Bathurst who has his sister Potsy and her son Zeb travelling in his jeep, had to furiously swerve to miss this rear end incident.

LEANING TOWER OF PISA

It's not everyone can say they drove up to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in their WW2 vehicle for a photo shoot. We weren't supposed to be in there so it was to be a quick drive by, grab a photo and "vamoose!"

TURIN

We only had one night in Turin, so Dale and I took Bev's advice and visited the National Cinema Museum, which has an important worldwide collection housed inside the "Mole Antorelliana" the symbol of the city of Turin.

The next day was an easy drive in our five vehicle convoy lead by Ray McKinney to Lake Maggoire in the north of Italy. We had one and a half days here, but no one seemed much in the mood for sightseeing, a swim was a nice change.

With the exception of petrol getting dearer, Italy seems to have it all over Greece. Better roadways, tidier streets, quieter traffic. There's still no bicycle helmets, but definitely is on motor bikes.

VEHICLE UPDATES

Ken Bathurst's jeep turned out to be a new electric fuel pump failure, not only was it not pumping, it was also blocking the supply. He pulled it off and threw it away and had no further problems.

Bob Ward's jeep developed a misfire and stopped. It ended up costing them the day. Replaced everything around the motor except the coil, still to no avail. Ended up towing it in. Turned out to be a condenser.

Michael O'Sullivan's Blitz had developed a short, so it flattened the batteries all the time to a point where it just stopped. It turned out to be a bad connection.

Nigel Ward's Blitz voltage regulator was flattening the battery. After cleaning the regulator points it appeared to be okay.

John Hedges hired an auto electrician to replace the distributor caps and faulty leads on the Ford utility. It seems to be running well.

We mentioned that our rear RH hub seal was leaking. Dale removed the hub, cleaned up the seal area with Nigel's emery tape, cleaned the seal and reassembled it. It took three hours. He reckoned he couldn't have done without the large outdoor umbrella brought from home. It didn't look as though it had been touched for awhile. It must've been the LH seal he did at home!