Fiats Then and Now

One false move and I've publish my blog before I even started it..Oops...anyway...
Keeping on a theme of cars, we parked beside this vintage Cinquecento yesterday on our jaunt to the market. I love old cars, especially curvy ones. I have a few fond stories of cars thru the years. Anyway, this model of fiat was Fabrizio's first car so he's rather fond of them also. He kept the road hot, up and down to Bella Baita back in his early 20's when he not only worked here at the family "La Baita" restaurant full time, he also worked in Villar Perosa at the historic Agnelli family Villar Perosa hotel. In those days the Villar Perosa Agnelli family estate was the out of Torino training base for the Juventus football squad. The team used to train in the fields on the family estate and stay in the hotel, where Fabrizio worked every hotel position there over the 10 years that he worked there. He has a lot of photos of him and the players and coaches over the years and even one with l' Avocatto himself, Gianni Agnelli, flamboyant grandson of Fiat's( Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torin) founder, Giovanni Agnelli. Working there also whetted Fabrizio's appetite to learn English and travel abroad a bit, so the Cinquecento got put thru it's paces all those years ago up and down our road. It was sold when he left for a job London for a restaurant job with a local Villar Perosa family that still has two very successful "San Lorenzo restaurants", in Knightsbridge and Wembledon.

The faithful Panda 4x4, pictured below, it seems is almost a standard issue car and prerequisite for mountain living. Most everyone has one and now they have come out with a newer model that seems to be the rage in our part of the world. We're looking to update, but for now this 10 year old panda keeps us up and down the road year round and seems to only ask for petrol and a bit of oil and air once in a while. A reliable little car, thank you very much.