27th and 25th July
Nice early train drive to Florence from the close by main railway station when Vera phoned advising that she and Vito would meet us in Panzano – a little village south of Florence this afternoon.
This left the team enough time to drive through the streets of Florence and head down to Pisa…
After seeing the tower of Pisa with its obvious latent defects it was time again to taste some more Vino, Parma ham and melons…
From there they went back to the autostrata and finally the winding roads through the Vineyard Mountains of Chianti….
Driving through these small villages was like a picture book experience of Tuscany and Andre mentioned that this is exactly how he always visualised Italy……
Arriving in Panzano, Vito was waiting for the Elao teams in the main street and guided them to a parking bay opposite a little butchery – they landed at the famous place of Dario Cecchini the famous butcher in Panzano.
A huge spread of Italian salamis and endless supply of Chianti vino made sure the team members were in high spirit and Dario made them feel so welcome as if he would know the Elao members since years.
From there off to the mountains where Dario’s sister has an old farm house styled Villa were the 3 teams and Vera and Vito would sleep for the night.
All back to Dario for a Tuscany styled barbeque consisting of the biggest T-bone steaks ever to be seen by mankind …..
A great evening was enjoyed by all and this small place can truly be recommended to all out there who plan a trip to the Chianti area. Please see www.dariocecchini.com
After a good night’s rest and a nice breakfast prepared by Dario’s sister it was decided to give the shipping agents a call in order to find out whether the cars could be fetched the following day – Thursday -or as promised a day later on Friday…
The unimaginable of course had to happen when the agent advised that the cars would only be offloaded on Monday the 1st of August – Now the team members really were stuck and a quick re -planning session had to take place.
It was decided to drive to Milano and catch a plane to Stuttgart Germany and from there make it to Freudenstadt rather than hang around in Italy where every place is filled to capacity with tourists . It really is high season in Italy..





