Renting an Alfa in Italy? Check this out--a GREAT article about it that
appeared in the Alfa Digest in 2007. (Oh. Yeah. It was written by my
daughter Kerry. I'm only slightly partial. She and Mark celebrate their 5th
wedding anniversary this summer. I'm sure the trip with the Alfa was the
reason they got married!)
Timothy in Santa Barbara
'67 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super
'71 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Super
'92 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce
'71 Alfa Romeo F-12 Van (Furgone)[gone!]
'55 Chevrolet Belair
'00 Jaguar XJ8
'11 Tesla Roadster
'81 Ford F150 Supercab Pick Up Truck
=====================================================
On Trying to Rent an Alfa in Tuscany
My father is an Alfa nut. He's got 4 different kinds in the driveway, Alfa
newsletters, Alfa baseball hats, sweatshirts, and luggage. Last year he even
got my mom an Alfa watch on EBay. He makes a pilgrimage to the Concorso
Italiano in Monterey every year, and once he even dragged my mother to
Milano for the Mille Miglia.
So when I announced to my Dad that my boyfriend, Mark, and I were planning a
trip to Rome and Tuscany, he immediately began pushing his Alfa agenda.
"You must rent an Alfa in Italy!" he commanded excitedly. "There's no way to
drive out in Italian countryside except in an Alfa. The Alfa 147 would be
perfect: economical and cool."
"Sure," I entertained. Other than my love for my cute VW New Beetle, I
really don't care about cars. However, I figure my parents are very tolerant
about indulging my interests - if it would bring my dad vicarious joy if I
rented an Alfa, why not? (Besides, he said he'd loan me his European cell
phone for the trip, so I figured I owed him something).
Little did I realize what I was getting us into. My father posted questions
on the online Alfa Digest asking other obsessive cyber-souls how they
secured Alfa vehicles on European vacations. He forwarded Mark and me all
the responses, and soon our inboxes were full of stories of trials and
tribulations. As it turns out, renting a specific make of car is more
difficult than it sounds. We followed the advice of others and made our
reservation with Europecar, despite the fact that they refused to guarantee
us any particular manufacturer.
Once in Rome, we had our hotel concierge call Europecar the day before our
scheduled pickup, hoping her authentic Italian accent could help us nail
down our desired auto. No such luck.
"Go to the closest pickup location," she instructed us. "If they don't have
the Alfa you want, they can probably arrange for you to go to the larger lot
near the train station and pick one up there."
We agree. After the next day's panini and gelato lunch we make our way to
the Europecar office - a tiny hole in the wall on a cobblestone street close
to the lush Borghese Gardens. Thankfully, the one agent on duty, Gianni,
speaks good English.
Mark and I explain to him what we're hoping for, and we spontaneously
concoct a fib about my father joining us on our trip, and that we want to
pick him up and take him to Tuscany in an Alfa (how else can we explain why
it matters to us to get this car?)
We tell him that my dad owns 4 Alfas: a Spider, 2 Giulias ("Ah, old Alfas",
he exclaims!) - and lastly an Alfa called an "F-12 Diesel Fugone." It's an
old Alfa van, a heap of a vehicle really - it looks like a beat up VW bus
and drives like a tractor. But my father loves it because it's rare and
quirky (Alfa made them as commercial vehicles, intended to transport
supplies and parts between businesses.)
Anyway, nobody has EVER heard of a Fugone, and this really gets to our
Italian clerk: learning about a new type of Alfa from an American couple. We
can tell he's mighty impressed.
But alas, he has no Alfa 147's in stock. Plan B, to pick one up from another
Europecar lot is thwarted too: nobody has this car on the lot at the moment.
But by now Gianni has taken pity on us and our quest so he's trying to be
helpful. "I do have an Alfa GT available," he tells. "It's a hot car. Men
wearing gold chains drive this car. You'd need an upgrade, though."
Although my boyfriend is not exactly the gold-chain wearing type, we like
the idea of driving around a pimp car on our tour of Tuscany. Because this
is Italy, though, we have to call Europecar in the U.S. - where we initially
made our reservation - in order to find out how much more we'd have to pay
to upgrade to this luxury vehicle.
After a few holds and transfers we finally learn it will cost $800 more for
5 measly days, plus a 100 km per day limit (if we exceed this limit, we
would get charged $30 per km). Needless to say, this surpasses our modest
budget, so we resist.
Then a light bulb goes on in Mark's head: "Maybe we can just peek at the
GT," he asks Gianni, "Ogle it for nostalgia's sake, and then drive off in
our generic Renault?"
Gianni looks around the room and thinks a moment. He is the one-man staff at
this shop, and normal protocol is for him to call the garage and they bring
the car around 5 minutes later. To show us the GT he would have to walk us
to the garage. Then he shrugs - as we have discovered from our time in Roma,
the people have few compunctions about closing up shop on a whim - so Gianni
did what the Romans do and simply locked up.
Our trek to the garage takes 10 minutes through meandering cobblestone
streets, and then takes us to an escalator that plunges us down underneath
the Borghese Gardens to a massive underground parking lot. We find the
Europecar department, and Gianni finds an Alfa GT for us to marvel over.
We are a little disappointed, however, that this lovely vehicle has
sustained a number of serious dents. We point them out to our guide and ask,
"What gives?"
"The people who rent this car," explains Gianni. "They listen to loud music,
they drive fast, and they ruin cars," he scoffs. Gianni is a soft-spoken and
elegant Italiano, and clearly this reckless machismo upsets his
sensibilities. We have already learned that he reads books by Deepak Chopra,
and is taking a quiet vacation with his dog next month in Tunisia.
We lavish a little more attention on the coupe; then we start walking over
to the Econo cars to examine the thing we'll be driving. There, parked amid
the Opels and the Renaults, is a golden Alfa 147!
Gianni puts his hand on the hood - "it's warm!" he announces. "Someone must
have just turned it in. I think I can get it for you."
After a little reprimanding from his boss, (maybe he wasn't so happy that
our guide left his post?) and a bit of a wait to deal with the paperwork and
an inspection, we finally get our cherished set of wheels.
I think we appreciate it all the more after our near 2 hour ordeal procuring
it. It, indeed, is a fine machine. It runs on diesel, accelerates with a
kick, and handles deftly on those curvy Tuscan roads. Plus, it looks great
in the pictures.
So it looks like the old man may make an "Alfisti" of me yet!
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