Modena's famous 'Circolo della Biella' often stages nice events in Italy and abroad. This time the invitation was for Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 April, to visit the ancient lighthouse and the Accademia Navale in Livorno (Leghron). Annibale Cecconi, member of that Club, had the kind idea to invite us, so Anna and I saddled our faithful 'Aerodyne' and went to Versilia Friday 26 April, to be sure to be there on time and also to enjoy a night of relax in Fiumetto
Friday 26 April
Starting from Faenza
A quick stop at Gordini's garage to check fluids etc
The day started with a very nice sunshine...
...but at noon the road to Firenze (the old A1 'Panoramica') was very wet, and it was raining quite hard. I had just bought some new wiper blades in UK but they were totally useless as they were fitted with old, hardened rubber so they didn't clean anything. Luckily I had the rubber of my 'new' wiper blades replaced by 'Walther Autoaccessori' in Via Toscana, Bologna, (just in front of my hospital) with a soft new Canadian-sourced compound. This proved to be a smart move, as the blades now work VERY well! On top of that I bought another product for making raindrops slide off the windscreen easily. In the pic above I applied this chemical only on my side's windscreen pane whilst the passenger's had been only wiped. See the difference!
Saturday 27 April
After a cloudy early morning, we had another splendid sunny day so we had lunch in the sun. Annibale and Leila Cecconi travelled with their splendid Porsche 356 'Convertible-D' and Renzo and Angela Panzacchi joined us with a Porsche 968
Marzio Cavazzuti, the organizer of this excellent event, and his lovely lady in front of the 403 in the Marina 'Cala de' Medici' near Castiglioncello
Annibale and Renzo enjoying a ray of sun, it was chilly anyway. The Martini was quite good
In the Circolo della Biella events, the 403 is always surrounded by lots of splendid red cars ...this is the parking lot of Hotel Villa Martini when we got back from the exhibition and dinner in Cala de' Medici
Sunday 28 April: Cantieri Benetti, Livorno
The black clouds were quite menacing, but this didn't stop us enjoying the splendid visit to 'Cantieri Benetti', bespoke makers of incredibly sumptuous yachts
The old Lighthouse, built in 1301 and destroyed in 1944 during the war then rebuilt in the same shape as before. Impressive
Anna took this great pic of the interior of the Lighthouse. After being blown up by the retreating Nazi troops in 1944, it was rebuilt with a solid concrete basis at the beginning of the Fifties
The Accademia di Livorno welcomes you with the huge anchors of two of the Regia Marina's most powerful battleships, the 'Vittorio Veneto' and 'Italia' (formerly known as 'Littorio')
The 403 was awarded this trophy (the shield of the Accademia Navale) for being the 'most unusual car' at the meeting
Back to Marina di Pietrasanta...
Monday 29 April
Some friends having fun
Anna, Angela, Leila, Annibale and Renzo
We moved to Forte dei Marmi for a light lunch Monday at noon before the return trip. We ate at our favourite spot in Forte, 'Fratellinis' and it didn't disappoint us. Pity about the weather
Back to Bologna
486 miles was the total tally of the Faenza-Bologna- Forte dei Marmi- Livorno return trip. on the last few miles before tucking the 403 in its garage I pushed her to see how much she would do. The tachometer nudged the 100 mph bar, but the engine wasn't happy; having still its winter shielding on it overheated a bit. Nothing serious, but I didn't push it further. Now I have to remove the shutters....
