Australia with Valentina

2001 Australia, Formula 1 Grand Prix, Valentina

Valentina on her first flight of her life, Pisa-Rome Fiumicino, with a visit to the cockpit, and then Qantas Boeing 747, arriving in Melbourne the evening of the next day. I didn't much like Qantas (Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services); it doesn't even have seat-back videos in economy. Well! Once in Melbourne, we go to Giuseppe's, who puts us up for the night; the next day, Formula 1 Grand Prix practice. With the rental car the next day, Valentina (another daughter of Vanni, my brother) and I drive to Echuca, a pretty little Australian town where old paddle steamers, driven by a stern wheel Mississippi-style, float on the river. We take a ride, then visit the old village, a reconstruction of Echuca in the 1800s. Having bought a bottle of good wine to give to Giuseppe Fittipaldi, who kindly hosts us at his home, in the evening we return to Melbourne.

The next morning, the three of us go to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix practice at Albert Park, which is none other than the city's public gardens on the coast by the beach near Dandenong. Great wonder on Valentina's part, who had never watched Formula 1. As the cars went by we were deafened, to the point that the loud noise hurt our eardrums. The next day the Qantas flight takes us to Brisbane; those lads certainly made a racket on the plane. By car as far as the Gold Coast, which I know well having spent six months there, in the company of my legendary Suzuki 600 DR. Having found a small cheap motel, we spent the remaining few days of our Australian trip there.

The visit to Currumbin was much enjoyed by Valentina, the most important zoo in all of Australia; there you can pull the kangaroos' tails and the emu walks a metre away from you without a problem, while the dingoes are fenced in, as are the koalas. Anyway, almost all Australian animals can be seen in this place, not least snakes, platypus, echidna and wombat. An episode worth telling because it can happen once in ten lifetimes: Vale and I were running to cross the road at Surfers Paradise, the traffic was imminent, my sunglasses fell from on top of my head onto the asphalt, and at the moment of impact with the ground, I, who was running, also stepped on them, finishing them off. At the next step, two metres away, also on the asphalt, a pair of glasses, also sunglasses, lay there as if placed by God; with a lunge, still running, I scooped them up and voila! Incredible even to tell.

South of Brisbane, on a road I'd never even travelled before, we spent the last available day searching for a beach, which we found; a snack at midday in a splendid spot surrounded by eucalyptus trees, with already a hint of nostalgia for the imminent departure from the land of the kangaroos towards cold Italy. Valentina always thanks me for this trip; she just made it in time, then she got married and now has two little girls.