VALLI E NEBBIE 2017
Friday 24 March 2017
'Valli e Nebbie' is a splendid tour around the countryside and lagoons, seaside and other peculiar places between Ferrara and the Adriatic Sea, organized since 28 years by the 'Officina Ferrarese', a superb enthusiasts' Club. Great connoisseur and friend Vittorio Falzoni Gallerani is the technical Guru of that Club so, when our close friends Fabrizio Demaria and Simonetta Guidelli Guidi told us that they had entered V&N with an Lancia Aurelia B20, they easily convinced Anna and me to join them. Our restored Bristol 403 was ready just in time...
I got the car back from the mechanics only Friday afternoon, after a long ordeal caused by brake master cylinder failures, AC fuel pump leaks and so on.... the odometer showed 1336 miles on the clock at the start, and we were allocated number 26
A very nice dinner
I booked the 'Osteria I Quattro Angeli' for dinner, a few yards from the 'Hotel Annunziata', just in front of the magnificent Castello. It proved to be an excellent choice
Angela, the charming young bartender, was not so easy to persuade about my request of NOT putting any vermouth in the Martini. I had to tell her that my late and much-lamented friend Umberto Eco once told me, echoing his friend Bunuel, that the vermouth must not modify the taste of the gin, it has to behave ".....like a ray of sunlight through a window-leaving it unbroken." Because of this, at the end she graciously capitulated. Her Martini was very good indeed
The table that Paolo (paoloducadeste@icloud.com) kindly booked for us was in this splendid, salami-decorated little room protected from the chaos of a very successful 'Happy Hour' outside; the typical Ferrarese dishes, like the 'Salama da Sugo', were really excellent. And the real Ferrarese bread is a treat, but it's rare to find it so good outside of Ferrara
Some of our cars parked in the square behind the Castello d'Este
Saturday 25 March
The starting line
The splendid pics above and below were taken by the great guys at http://www.officialphotographersrls.com/
The other pics are mostly Anna's, of course
Here you understand the 'Nebbie' ('Fog') part of the title of this event....
The early morning fog cleared in time to enjoy a splendid sun in a natural oasis
Fabrizio and Simonetta with the Aurelia B20
Fried fish in the 'Sala dei Fuochi' in Comacchio
The 'Tre Ponti' (Three Bridges) of Comacchio
A more eloquent perspective of those highly unusual three bridges
A timed stage near Porto Garibaldi. We weren't very good this time with the stopwatch, but we enjoyed the event all the same
Spring is coming....If you are asking yourself what the badge with crossed golf clubs on Anna's sleeveless jacket means, well, it's the Golf Club Villa d'Este, of course
Back in Ferrara near dusk, it was a long day around the countryside and the 403 at long last ran like a jewel. You can't fail to love a 2-litre Bristol when she runs like this
Sunday 26 March
Visions of Ferrara, excellent bread, bicycles, the great Castello....
Manichini Bonaveri
We thought of the visit to this factory as a strange stop on our way back from Cento to Ferrara, in a place, Renazzo, more famous for having been the birthplace of Ferruccio Lamborghini. We found an incredibly fascinating place instead: a futuristic plant making 20.000 mannequins every year, all of them sold to top-tier stylists. Real works of art!
Riccardo Zavatti is a great President, courteous, helpful and always smiling; his Club is very good indeed, and you can see it in the spotless organization of this event. Congratulations!
After so much work, it was nice to see that the temperature of both oil and water remained more than reassuring for the whole trip, even during some queues. Oil pressure, now that there is only Castrol 10W-40 in the sump and no gasoline, is a healthy 30 lb/sq.ft when idling with the engine oil temperature never going over 75°C (above, left) whilst it rises to 60 lb/sq.ft when the 403 cruises at 3.000 rpm
I still have some problems, though. The 'dancing' ammeter (please click on the image to see how much it flickers at 2.000-3.000 rpm, and it behaves the same even when going at a constant speed in a straight line) makes me wonder what's wrong with it, or with the new alternator that we fitted during the restoration....
SUMMARY
The 'Valli e Nebbie' tour was 276 miles long (= 444 kilometers, return trip to/from Bologna). Fuel consumption was around 10 litres/100 kms, but didn't pay much attention to this parameter. Oil consumption was negligible and the 403 drove very well, that was all that mattered for me this time
...and many thanks to Anna for all the pictures that she takes when I'm too busy driving the 403, fixing her/ washing her/ swearing etc.....
