Sunday 10 June – Day 1 of the Tour.
It has finally arrived after all the planning and waiting, the group is gathering in Maranello. We have washed the RCZ ready lead the way and we tried to do some laundry but the 24 hour laundry doesn’t mean open Sundays. First to arrive was Ian in the Lotus Evora. He had driven it down from the UK was impressed how it went. Ian booked in Saturday night so we were able to have dinner and a few drinks in realative calm. Maranello was going off. The town centre was closed to traffic and there were stall selling bits and pieces and a song and dance show on a stage. There were people everywhere with no sign of slowing down when we left at midnight.
Next to arrive was Sandro, Jo and the boys in a Maser4200 coupe. mid morning Sunday. Lunch time we greeted Brenton and Jane in their RCZ who were followed into the carpark by the two Peters in their 360 Spider. I was still saying hi to all when Gary and Janine rolled up in a diesel E Cabrio instead of the petrol SLK he ordered closely followed by the RCZ of Phil who had brought it down solo from the UK through Paris. Last to arrive were Roger and Allen who had also run foul of Avis when their 330 Bmw turned out to be a X1, nice enough but not what was planned.
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| Our 1st dinner together |
We met for drinks at 4pm and all got introduced, swapping stories of trips from Australia before walking into town for dinner at a pizza place on the town square. Lots of noise and action as Italy were playing Spain in a world cup qualifier followed by the F1 from Canada. A fun 1st night was had including a mass migration from our outside tables when it started to rain.