Write Up The Italian Job......2017 style.

[Lazzzydog]

How much gear do you need for 2 weeks away and more to the point how much can you get in the boot of a Z3? Fortunately Jeano's Z3M does not have the cd carrier and the carpet liner hump so we are in with a good shout of cramming plenty in. Too much in fact, next year we will manage with just one case as many items of clothing came back un-worn and hopefully we will not need full evening wear for a Gala Ball!

 

[Lazzzydog]

We had booked on the Chunnel as the Z is lowered and ferry ramps would be a no-no as well as being slower and less convenient. £99 for the outbound and £66 return. The ramps on to the train are fairly level and prove no problem but I still take them very carefully. No tramping up steps from the car deck and no searching round for a seat away from noisy kids or drunken yobbos, just relax in your own car as the train takes the strain. Perfect and even better still we arrived early and were given an earlier crossing at no charge.
We left home at about 09.00 for a 14.50 departure from Folkestone but actually left the train in France at about 14.30 even after "losing" an hour by having to put our clocks forward.
This gave us an easy couple of hour and a half down to our first stopover at the hotel Le Florence in the town of Saint Quentin.
This beer cost me nearly 7 quid. (I had 2 but this could not carry on!)

 

[Lazzzydog]

The hotel had private off street parking and although the room was small it was clean and the en suite was very good. The breakfast was typical buffet style and plenty of it. Having eaten and packed we set off for the next stop in Dijon at the Hotel d'Paris. What a Hell hole, we would not stay there again if they paid us. Dijon itself is ok but the hotel was run down and occupied by noisy families who I imagine are emergency housed homeless or immigrants. The on site parking was non existant so we ended up paying an extra 12.5 eoros tp park 200 meters away in the station multi storey. This place had good revues si I guess it has gone downhill fairly recently.

 

[Lazzzydog]

Skipping on from Dijon we carried on south not knowing where we would stop tonight. I had booked the first 2 nights for peace of mind but wanted to have a bit of leeway about where we would stop after that. We used the motorway as far as Troyes but decided it was now time to take the route nationale to avoid the tolls and see some of the rural French villages. We stopped for a picnic lunch in one village (the name escapes me at the moment) beside this monument to the allied troops under General Patton who freed it from Nazi occupation during world war 2. The Eurocrats may have forgotten but the general population have not.

 

[Zeti]

A write up on my taste!

 

[Paul Rice]

Glad everything went swimmingly, bet you both love the Zed even more now?

 

[Lazzzydog]

Glad everything went swimmingly, bet you both love the Zed even more now?

Spot on Paul. We have really gelled with it now. I thought it might get uncomfortable for the wife after a couple of hours which is why I broke the journey down into roughly 200 mile days but I was completely wrong. The car is a fantastic GT and good for 500 mile days which is what we did on the way home.

 

[Lazzzydog]

Sunday night was Saint Quentin, Monday night Dijon and we carried on down South to spend Tuesday night in Chamonix Mont Blanc. Actually just outside the village in a cracking hotel called Le Castel. After the dump we stayed in last night we decided to rock the boat out and booked a beautiful suite for a bargain 120 Euros compared to the in season price of 260 Euros per night room only. We had a private balcony looking out to Mont Blanc on one side and a densely forested mountain the other side.

 

[GazHyde]

Looks like a cracking trip, enjoy!

We ought to have a thread on handy hints for cramming the most luggage in to a Z3. I think a few people will have some suggestions, such as buying a suit carrier you can sandwich between the passenger seat back and the bulkhead - perfect for jackets, shirts and so on...

 

[Lazzzydog]

That night we eat at the hotel and it was an expensive mistake. The food was ok but overpriced nouvelle cuisine in tiny portions. I would book the room again in a heartbeat but find a restaurant for our evening meal.
Next morning we made the very short drive up to French entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel where a short queue up to the border post lead us to a lovely lady lightened our pockets by 43.5 Euros for the priveledge of driving under the mountain. Sounds expensive but well worth it as it takes about 7 hours of your drive! You tune in to a radio station that issues updates and warns of any problems as you pass through if necessary. You have to keep about 100 metres apart which everyone does and in no time you emerge in Italy and the views down the valley to the right takes your breath away. Unfortunately we have no photos of this but next year Rodney, next year son.

 

[Lazzzydog]

Looks like a cracking trip, enjoy!

We ought to have a thread on handy hints for cramming the most luggage in to a Z3. I think a few people will have some suggestions, such as buying a suit carrier you can sandwich between the passenger seat back and the bulkhead - perfect for jackets, shirts and so on...

Great idea, I have a suit carrier but never thought of doing that.

 

[Lazzzydog]

Once through the tunnel it is a fair old drop for a good few miles through many more tunnels down past Alexandria to Genoa. The plan from here was to drop on to the coast road and find a hotel in Genoa but everywhere was crammed with cars except one hotel just out of the main town area. I pulled in and was guided to a parking spot by a smartly dressed car park attendant. The alarm bells on my wallet started ringing but I thought I'm here now so I may as well go in and enquire. After being quoted a rate that would require selling a kidney and putting the wife to work around the dock area we decided to move on. This proved to be a good move as we ended up in Rapallo at a tidy Hotel in a side street right across from the local Gendarmerie. The parking was on street but sure to be safe with the police for neighbours. We ate that night in a beach front restaurant that the hotelier recommended and after breakfast next morning continued south along the twisting coast road stopping every now and again to take in the scenery of the Italian Riviera.

 

[Lazzzydog]

After an hour or so the tight twists and turns, 2nd gear 3rd gear brake up hill hairpins downhill hairpins that were fun start to get monotonous so it's time to head slightly inland on to the motorway and a quick blast the rest of the way in to Pisa to see the famous leaning tower. Lady Luck smiles on us and we park roadside about 100 metres from Italy's number one tourist attraction. We are not disappointed as the tower is everything we expected and the angle of lean far greater than pictures show. The Cathedral and surrounding buildings are also extremely beautiful and even though it is fairly busy we have a great day.
Italy has so far been spared any terrorist attacks by Muslim groups but even so there is an armed guard at the entrance to the tower steps with a civilian helper running a hand held scanner over anyone who wants to climb up to the viewing platform. The guards company car was a hefty piece of kit.

 

[Lazzzydog]

Tonight we had planned on staying in Pisa but the day was still young and the sun was beaming down so we decided to take the scenic route back out to the coast and book in a day early to the resort where the annual Z3mendi club meeting was being held just outside Livorno at the Regina del Mare resort in Crambone. Good call as the extra night b&b was 70 euros and better still one of the meeting organisers was there in reception making last minute checks. This was our first meeting with the charismatic Stephano. This man seems to be a lynch pin in the organisation and despite the fact he speaks no English and we speak no Italian he managed to make us very welcome. He managed to explain that he had to leave for a couple of hours and we explained that we would go out to find food before we checked in to our room that would be ours for the weekend. A room with a mezzanine bedroom and a French window opening out onto a patio and small garden area. Very different.
There was also a private beach that was just about deserted.

 

[Lazzzydog]

On returning to the hotel at about 8pm there was a small reception committee waiting for us and our first meeting with Tommaso another big cog in the club machinery. Tommaso and his friends spoke excellent English and made sure we were comfortable and wanted for nothing. He also told us that the club raises a lot of money for charity through it's events throughout the year but did not donate the money directly but preferred to ask whatever cause they were working for what they needed and then supplied the goods, thus ensuring that the money reached the needy.
It turns out that he is a retired Rear Admiral from the Italian navy and he trained as a young recruit on one of the ships we would be visiting on the Sunday.

 

[Lazzzydog]

We were a day ahead of schedule and just relaxed on Friday morning before sitting out in the sun to watch the arrival of the Italian cars. What a treat to see so many gorgeous Z's of all capacities and colours rolling up to one spot. Some arrived alone, some in pairs and some had obviously ganged up en route and rolled in together. Fantastic.

 

[TaffDaddy]

This is a really good write up and sounds like an excellent trip

 

[Lazzzydog]

That night it was dinner and silly games with Stephano hosting on the microphone and a dj conducting the games. New members and were called out and ritually embaressed to everyone's delight and then of course we were not spared and had to get up and take part in a game pretty much like Brucie's old Play Your Cards Right. All good fun and the ice well and truly broken. We were given the honour of sitting with the Admiral and his family for a cracking evening. Then it was off to bed and a 07.30 alarm to be up and fed before the first organised outing to the Italian Parachute Regiment barracks nearby. We had a pep talk before leaving from Stephano on the megaphone. Can you see a trend starting? We had to drive responsibly and keep in tight formation. We would be leaving in 15 minutes when the police motorcycle escort riders arrived. But this is Italy and 15 minutes dragged out to an hour but stood in the sun amidst 100 Z3's this is no bad thing.
On arrival at the barracks we parked in formation on the parade ground in a grid that the army had painstakingly drawn out on the tarmac. Impressive stuff.

 

[Lazzzydog]

This is a really good write up and sounds like an excellent trip

Thanks. The trip just got better and better as we went on.
Bedtime but hopefully more tomorrow.

 

[Paul Rice]

Glad everything went swimmingly, bet you both love the Zed even more now?

Why the disagree @DavidM