Hello dear readers.

I must apologise for the delay in writing another post, however it appears that central Italy has not yet heralded the arrival of the world wide web and this is the first time I have been able to sit down in front of my computer to let you know how our weekend in Italy went. I will of course inform you of our precise movements and of the people we have met along the way, but firstly let me tell you about a little dilemma we are currently experiencing...

After 3 solid days of near perfect driving from myself and Aly (I am still buzzing from my "Lewis Hamilton-esque" navigation of some of the tightest hairpins known to man over the Swiss-Italian border) we have come across a little issue that we must now take into careful consideration every day. As following the trip mileage from our map book has proved to us, neither myself nor Aly are born mathematicians (although Aly is an accountant and I worked in financial derivatives). I will put it into a simple equation:

GETTING A 1948 ROLLS ROYCE TO ISRAEL THROUGH SOME OF THE MOST SPECTACULAR ROADS IN EUROPE = TWO CHARMING AND GOOD LOOKING OLIM + TWO FINE JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS (NEFESH B'NEFESH AND JNF) + ENGINE + STEERING + CLUTCH + BRAKES

You see our dilemma is this: The olim are of course taken care of and remain pumped and in good spirits. Nefesh B'Nefesh and the JNF have done a fantastic job getting us this far and our mechanics worked tirelessly over the first couple of days to ensure our engine was spot on.

However, we now face a choice as to whether we say goodbye to the brakes or our clutch first.

The winding, steep hills of the Alps have taken a toll on our poor 1948 cruiser from the flat English countryside and both our brakes and clutch are very quickly heading for the scrap yard. Every journey we take must now be preceded by a carefully planned route and agenda to ensure we do not encounter any hills steep enough to require burning out first gear on the way up or blowing the drum brakes on the way down.

However we have yet to find a road that we can stay in fourth gear constantly with out breaking or taking a tight turn, and so every time we need to slow down we are faced with the decision of whether we brake to come to a halt or use the gears to pull us up. Each pain staking decision takes us another mile to Israel, although despite the worry that our trip may just end there and then on a dusty Italian hillside. Readers, please pray that our steering does not become the next part of this intricate equation to leave us scratching our heads as we did when taking our maths GCSEs.

Anyway, let me tell you about our weekend. Shabbat was of course our first day off from driving and allowed our fantastic mechanics Graham, John and Gordon to tinker with whatever needed to be tinkered with and allowed myself and Aly to truly take stock of what we are currently doing. We left Bolzano and the delights of the 'speckfest' and headed south to Venice. In order to avoid the last minute dash to make it to Venice for Shabbat we left early and chose the most direct route (which of course our poor brakes and clutch we very happy about). A ferry at Venice port took us on a lovely half hour crossing to the Lido just off the mainland and a marathon photography session of nearly 200 photos of all sights Venetian viewable from the top deck ensued. Once we arrived under our rally arch to the grand entrance of the Westin Excelsior we had arrived for a Shabbat to savour. A wonderful Shabbat service, kosher caterer and a few drinks made Friday night in Venice truly lovely and the warm family atmosphere of our rally was topped off by the Zetlin family (Mercedes SL500) welcoming us to their table for the evening.

Saturday was a chance for myself and Aly to catch some 'me' time. I knew that I needed some time to myself as the last month or so has been a whirlwind of planning, goodbyes, over-bearing Jewish mothers and of course driving through Europe. Therefore I spent the morning running/trying to look remotely fit on the beach and then took the shuttle boat to Venice. Venice is busy and expensive, however it is also quite simply stunning and realises my utopian ideal of a city centre free from cars. I spent a good few hours meandering aimlessly through the small, winding streets eating furious amounts of ice cream and ensuring that no part of Venice was left un-photographed.

The day drew to a close with a lovely meal in a restaurant close by with a good group of us where we had time to catch up and gear ourselves up for another long day of driving ahead.

Sunday was supposed to be a spectacular drive through the Tuscan hills to our destination just outside Siena. However, our little dilemma meant we had to choose the most direct route on the motorway. We missed the beauty of Tuscany, however the picturesque routes that many motorways weave across Europe leave a two hour slog up the M1 firmly in their wake and it was still a pleasant enough drive. Our destination in Siena was quite simply stunning and an afternoon by the pool and a drinks reception at sunset brought and end to a fantastic weekend and put us just in the frame of mind for a challenging week ahead.

Yan