Beautiful blue sky contrasting nicely against sunflowers and honeybees near Rimini, Italy.

The Italian Blues – More than a feeling

Beautiful blue sky contrasting nicely against sunflowers and honeybees near Rimini, Italy.
Curing the blues with sunflowers and honeybees

Oh no… here they come again

There comes a time after every trip to Italy, the inevitable will occur.  The return of the Italian blues. Don’t laugh, it’s a thing! Well, it is for us anyhow.

After recently spending just over a month in Italy, you would think that we would be content after such an amazing trip. Nope, its the complete opposite if anything. Being back home just reinforces the fact that we need to go back as soon as we can, to resume our quest to discover all that is Italy.

There are still so many regions to visit and so many things to see. Each time we return, our must see list gets longer instead of shorter.

Grey skies give us the blues

the blues are a by product of the greys... days that is!
Lush green grass means rain, rain and more rain!

The only thing worse than feeling blue about leaving Italy, is coming home to what is arguably one of worst summers on the prairies that we’ve seen in decades. Now, I hate being that weather whiner guy but, come onYes, this summer has left us a touch cranky.

I will confess though, things could have been worse. We could have been here for the whole soggy spring season. Fortunately, we had the month of June in Italy which gave us a month of blue skies and hot, hot temperatures.  It’s our friends and family we feel bad for!  These poor souls have had to endure rain filled, overcast days the whole time we were away.

A cure for the Italian blues

The blues of the Ligurian coast line by Camogli, Italy.
Blue skies and blue waters

Let’s face it, unless we’re in Italy drinking cappuccinos on a patio, there is no cure for the IB’s (Italian Blues). The best we can hope for is that we make it through the day without weeping.

That said, we have a few tricks in our toolbox that help us take the edge off the IB’s.

The first trick is to visit our favorite local Italian cafes and restaurants, just to get a bit of a taste of Italia. It’s not the same, but it is something!

Next we revisit all the places we’ve previously been to in Italy via photos we’ve taken while in country. This way we get to relive our happy times in our happy place by simply swiping through images on the computer.

Last but not least, we start planning our next trips to Italy. What places will we see next or which places will we see again? This step will keep us busy for months and months. There’s no time to be blue when you’re planning an exciting holiday, now is there?

Being blue isn’t always a bad thing

To make this point, we here at OIR would like to share with you photos from Italia capturing the color blue. Blue skies, blue water and all things featuring the color blue.

Perhaps you may be suffering through a case of your own blues. If so, this might be the incentive you need to begin making your own plans for an Italian vacation!

I Like Knockers – The bigger the better!

I Like Knockers – The bigger the better!

Surrounded by Graffiti
Trastevere Knockers

 

I know what you’re thinking. This guy sounds like a pig!

Well, I’m sorry.  I can’t help it.  I like big, beautiful, door knockers.

Lucky for me, Italy is the place to be for some seriously big knocker spotting.  It doesn’t take long to notice that many of the older buildings in Italy have huge doors.  So, it only stands to reason, big doors need big knockers! Read more

Italy’s Fiat 500 – Tiny car, HUGE appeal

Italy’s Fiat 500 – Tiny car, HUGE appeal

A Fiat 500 in Orvieto

If you are looking for an automotive icon that screams Italy, look no further than the Fiat 500

Production of this tiny but practical car began it’s run in 1957 as the Nuova 500.  The basic body design stayed relatively unchanged until it’s production end in September 1975.  You might be thinking to yourself who would want a car that hardly changed for that many years?  Lots of people that’s who.  Here’s a number to chew on.  Over it’s 18 year history, almost 4 million 500’s were built!  Those are solid numbers especially when you consider that very little changed on the car from year to year.  These cars where perfect because they were an affordable car for the average family of the time.  However, to the casual observer, distinguishing between a 1957 Fiat 500 and the 1975 model is next to impossible.

 

Arm yourself with Fiat trivia to impress your friends and family

The First thing to pack into your Fiat 500 identification toolkit will most likely be the easiest one for you to remember.  Without a doubt this little tidbit will have people saying, “Wow… you’re a clever one aren’t you?!”  Here it is, look close at the side doors of these two cars below for one moment… Notice any difference?

 

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Fix your gaze at the placement of the door handles on these two little beauties.  When the handles are located towards the back of the door, you can proclaim with confidence, ” That Fiat 500 was built between 1965 and 1975.”  Now wait for the looks of astonishment you’ll get from your audience!  Next, hit them with, “If the door handles are located towards the front of the door, (known as suicide doors) it was made between 1957 and 1965.” This should be when the Aaaahhhhs leave their lips!

Of course there are always exceptions to any rule.  The 500 Giardiniera, a 3 door Estate version, kept the suicide doors into the 70’s.

You may have noticed an overlap in 1965.  That’s because Fiat introduced the 500F model in the same year they were ending production of the 500D model.  All you really need to know is, handle in the front, 1965 and older.  Handle towards the back, 1965 and newer!

Now that I’ve awakened your inner Fiat 500 trivia nerd, click here to get a more comprehensive list of the differences between the model years.  You’ll be the life of the party!

Fiat 500 Gairdiniera in Verona
Reserved Parking for Fiat 500 Giardieria

The Fiat 500 has the ultimate cute factor going for it.

In fact, I challenge you not to say or think… “how cute!” when walking by one of these ultra small cars.  We couldn’t resist doing a size comparison of our small 6 year old niece standing next to a Fiat.  Now as it did then, we laugh at how it looks like she could have jumped in and pedaled the car away.  It’s hard to imagine a family packing themselves into a Fiat 500 and then travelling to nonna’s house for Sunday dinner.  But as a teen driver, how much fun would it have been to zip all about the town’s narrow lanes in one of these?  Well, fun until mamma came out to twist your ear half off for driving too fast through the neighborhood!

Cruising the streets of Lucca
“Can I Have It?”

No doubt about it, the Fiat 500 was a practical, low cost car for the time and streets of Italy.

The standard engines for these pint sized autos ranged from a 479cc-13hp up to a 594cc-21hp version found in the sport models.  It’s really hard to wrap my head around a 13hp four seater car.  Heck… my lawn tractor has 23 horsepower engine in it!  We’ve driven enough roads in Italy to think it must be a challenge for a fully loaded 500 to climb those steep hills.

I’ve never had the pleasure of driving or riding in a vintage Fiat 500.  I believe our next trip to Toscana will change that!

As luck would have it, there are companies offering self driving tours using the vintage Fiat 500.  Sweeeet!  The 500 Touring Club of Firenze being one of them, offers a number of different driving tours which are sure to peak your interest.  They’ve put together picnic tours, wine tours and tours for those who just want to drive in style!  Personally, I see an Italian picnic tour coming up for our 2019 trip through Tuscany.

 

Image courtesy of 500 Touring Club
Let’s Cruise                                                                           Image courtesy from the 500 Touring Club of Firenze.

The Fiat 500 is a much loved car with a huge following

There is an unwavering love the Italians have for these little cars.  The proof of that is in the shear numbers of them still roaming about the Italian landscape.  Who can blame them?  The pride of ownership of a 500 is also apparent by how many windshields have some kind of Fiat 500 club decals stuck on them.  If I called Italy home… I would soooooo be a member of that club!

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Camogli fiat 500 small
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That’s a Wrap!  When art meets function.

Genova fiat 500L right
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Genova Fiat 500L small

The best thing about walking the streets in Italy is that you never know what’s waiting around the next corner.  Case in point, this uniquely dressed up Fiat 500L  parked on a street in Genova.  It serves 2 purposes, it’s a fantastic photo op for tourists and it definitely makes people smile.  Without a doubt it certainly does it’s job perfectly.

The Fiat 500 is a true success story in automotive history.  It’s the little car that could… and did!  If this little Italian car were to vanish from the streets of Italy tomorrow, Italia would loose a huge part of its charm.

Cats of Italy

Cats of Italy – A Purrfect Story

Beware of Italian Cats
Caution

Pssst…I’m going to let you in on a little something.  The internet is full of cats.  They’re everywhere!

Go ahead, google cats.  I did… 665,000,000 results!!!  That my friends is a staggering amount of cat chat going on.  If each one of those results were a 2″ long coughed up hairball, they would circle the globe 383 or so times laid end to end.

 With that image in your head,  our post “Cats of Italy” is going to be number 665,000,001.  

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