To Madrid in a Fiat Panda

On the evening of Saturday the 28th, Bello, Guido and I were at Luca's (Cuffietta) place to decide where to spend New Year's Eve and how to reach our chosen destination. We four could not agree at all, neither on the destination nor, above all, on the vehicle to use; so, since Cuffietta and I absolutely did not want to spend those days in our home town, we decided to set off the following morning in my mum's little Panda (which was due to be scrapped the next month anyway) and spend the last days of the year in Nice…..the usual Nice, but far better than Motta Visconti. Then Guido joined in, and in the end even the very indecisive Belloni!! So on the morning of the 29th I went to pick up my three travelling companions and we set off towards the French Riviera.

Although the Panda's heating system was out of order and its top speed was 90 km/h, somehow the destination changed from Nice first to Barcelona and then even to Madrid!!! After 12 hours we reached the area near the border between France and Spain, and Guido, looking at the map, had the brilliant idea of "cutting across" the Pyrenees instead of continuing along the motorway. At around 3 a.m., after crossing the tiny state of Andorra and seeing that the little roads of that mountain range never seemed to end, freezing cold, we stopped in a mountain village and went into a half-empty bar to warm up. We set off again after half an hour and finished the mountain roads; at around 6 a.m. on the 30th of December we stopped at a service area where, after another little warm-up, all four of us fell asleep in our little "coche" parked up. We were woken at around 9 a.m.

by some people knocking on the window….. Bello and I, sleeping in the front seats, looked towards the window and realised we had a gun pointed at us!!! It was the Mossos d'Esquadra!! We were surrounded by 4 patrols!! They lined us up against the wall!! We were mistaken for Basque terrorists!!! Unbelievable!! After more than an hour of careful searching they let us go, mistakenly taking the Panda's keys with them..Bello's fault!! Once the police were phoned by the boy working at the service-area shop, and once we had the keys back, we set off again towards Madrid. After a short stop in Zaragoza (a city with a fine square) and having got a fine for the Cinturon in Guadalajara, we arrived at around 8 p.m. in the long-awaited Spanish capital!! After a couple of hours we found accommodation in a little dive near Atocha station.

On the 31st we had dinner in our room with nothing but fruit and then went around the city to celebrate the end of the year. We had all sorts of adventures. From midnight until 2 a.m. (and beyond) Bello put on a circus act. During that night everything and more happened, and at around 8 a.m. I found myself on a city train in the company of a girl from Madrid, heading towards her flat on the far outskirts. I practically moved in with her for a couple of days and so she became my personal tour guide..

Madrid lies at the centre of the Iberian peninsula at nearly 700 m above sea level and, besides being the seat of the Spanish Parliament and Government, it is also the main residence of the Monarchy. The Plaza de Espana, with the statue of Cervantes at its centre, is the starting point of the Gran Via, which is flanked by the Espana building and the 35-storey Torre de Madrid. Anyone who loves art and finds themselves in Madrid cannot fail to visit the neoclassical Museo del Prado, which offers the chance to see countless masterpieces of painting, including works by Goya, Velasquez, Murillo, El Greco, Titian and Botticelli. A short distance from the Prado are the Botanical Garden and a National Museum.

After leaving Nuria (the very kind Spanish girl), telling her that I was leaving her city, I rejoined the 3 desperados and we spent another 2 fine days…or rather another 2 fine nights. On the morning of the 4th, having climbed into the little Panda, which had been parked on a shady street for the whole of our stay in Madrid, we took the road home, stopping for one night in Barcelona (a city we have all been to several times). This stop simply could not be missed, since a very dear friend of ours has lived in that city for some years. We spent a fine evening in the company of Pelle, who kindly put us up in his tiny flat.

The following morning we found an unpleasant surprise..a window of the Panda had been removed!! Not broken but taken out and laid on the back seat, in order to steal a bottle of water!! Unbelievable!! After "plugging" the hole with a bin bag and some sticky tape, we took the long (because of the limited speed) road back towards our little village.