New Tricks

It's good to have a savvy grandson. During our visit with him in Bologna, Italy we returned to the apartment late at night and too tired to go out to eat. He pulled up "Deliveroo" on his phone and we'd order a meal to be delivered by a guy on a bike. We could track his progress so we knew when to meet him at the front door. Evidently, it is the saviour of college students wanting late night pasta.

I rented a couple of different cars while here. The first was the Volvo S90. We took it to Florence and then down the Chianti Road to Siena. it was very comfortable and smooth to drive. The next day I got an Alfa Romeo Stelvio and we took it north to Lake Garda. It was not as comfortable, the instruments and controls (shifting) were a little confusing and the steering was twitchy. The shifter is electronic and operates like a floppy paddle shifter but its a stick on the console. Getting reverse required pushing a button with your foot on the brake and a couple of nudges. And when I stopped for diesel, the eco system shut it down, I got out to pump and when I got back in, it would not re-start. I had to press the stop engine button to make it think I shut it down.

Chianti Road (Strada Regionale 222) would be a blast in an open top sports car. Even better if you knew there was nobody coming the other way on blind curves. Just don't get distracted by the  scenery and the vineyards.