Geneve to Roma, June 25

Off in the morning to the Geneve Centre Sixt location to get our steed for the next ten days.  I had reserved a "BMW 3 series or similar", but they offered us a free upgrade to an Audi A5 with satnav.  We (Shishir and I, that is) took it without hesitation.  After all, we had been contemplating acquiring a European delivery S5, so we figured this would be close.

The nav system was set up for German, so we used the Garmin Nuvi that we'd taken along to get back to K&P's house, where Shashank obligingly posed proprietarily beside the car.

Shishir switched the nav to English, but it still spoke in German.  After poking around a bit, I realized that there was a language CD that you had to put in, at which point the lady started to speak in the Queen's English.  Well, almost.  For some reason, her German roots showed through whenever she said the word "right", and then only in the phrase "Now keep right".  Tickled me pink throughout the trip. Everyone else thought I was weird for being thus tickled.

More on the A5.  This was a European model with the 2.0 liter TFSI and (count 'em) eight-speed automatic and FWD.  No great shakes in the low-end torque department, but the tranny shifted beautifully and fast, and the engine made nice (if muted) sounds when on song. Compared to our decade-old (or more) Audis, very sophisticated.

Bidding goodbye to Kiran, Prasanna, Pranav and Vaibhav, off we zoomed toward Italy via the Mont Blanc tunnel and Genoa.

For us car-bound West Coasters, 500-odd miles doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it somehow felt much longer.  The first part of the drive was positively spectacular, into the Alps, through the tunnel and then down into Italy.  Less thrilling were the hefty tolls -- we spent a good bit more on toll than we did on gas (which is also pricey, of course).

Approaching the Mont Blanc tunnel

A rest area, I think just after we entered Italy (Aosta, maybe?)

Pixar's everywhere!

Once in the plains of North Italy, things got a bit monotonous.  Being on the Autostrada meant that we made good speed, but there were no picturesque little towns -- only Autogrill-anchored rest areas.

We made it into Rome by 6 or so to find the streets exactly like India. Lots of scooters, lackadaisical traffic law obedience, no visible signage.  I felt right at home, except that (a) I was driving an expensive car that wasn't mine, and (b) our B&B was in the seediest part of Rome.

To be fair, it didn't feel unsafe -- just not particularly clean, and smelly.  But more on that later.

The manager took one look at our car,  and directed us to an autorimessa down the street. It wasn't safe to park such a nice car on the street apparently.  Very reassuring, we thought, and went off in search of said parking garage.

Which turned out to be in the basement of a dilapidated building, to which you gain entrance by descending a 45-degree incline.  Cars of all descriptions are parked (I should say "packed") side by side, quite literally centimeters from each other.  This is where we were going to leave our rental for the next three days?

But Valentino, the proprietor (?) was a friendly, animated fellow who attempted to tell us in mime about his motorcycling enthusiasm.  We caught a few words and grinned vacuously back, but left feeling a bit better.

The room in Pensione di Acqua Bullicante was supposed to be a quadruple, but that's only in the strictest sense.  Still, we were only planning to sleep there, so we figured it was OK.  Besides, we'd just been on the road all day, and we were in no mood to go looking for another place.

The manager told us of an Indian place round the corner, so we headed there for dinner. The proprietor was from Bangladesh, and the food was passable, although hardly haute cuisine.