Number 74 - dated 22.02.2012 - © Axel Gerstl

Rome - Istanbul - Rome - with a Fiat 500 (Part 2)!

Dear Customers, dear Fiat 500 friends, Fiat 126 friends and Fiat 600 friends,

Today we cover the second part about Gianluca Florentini's journey with his Fiat 500 L from Rome to Istanbul.

The first part was about the experiences he gathered during his visits in Rome, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Follow Gianluca Florentini today on the Bosporus to Istanbul and on his way through Greece and Montenegro back to Rome.

Moreover we present you today another photo from our Fiat 500/600 "Black-and-White Picture Gallery" and of course many interesting offers and news around the Fiat 500, the Fiat 126 and the Fiat 600.

Have fun with reading!

Your Axel Gerstl Team

> Rome - Istanbul - Journey

Arrival in Turkey...

An immaculate white mosque materializes it from the nothing as soon as you put wheel into the Turkish territory. Strategically built after a light fold of the road that hides it to the sight, it appears only when you have dispatched the customs formalities out of Bulgaria but you have not left the area of frontier yet.

During the last three thousand kilometres, Latin culture has gradually left the place top the Greek-Byzantine first and the Ottoman one later. The border is few dozens of kilometres behind but Bulgaria seems to be light years far. Edine is into East: and it is definitely another world.

Suddenly I got sucked into the infernal flow of the traffic of cars, trucks, buses and notorious minibuses that swarm all of them at 70 km/h inside a gut of asphalt protected by guardrail that penetrates for dozens of kilometres through the conurbation of Istanbul. At every junction in entrance, other cars, trucks, buses and minibuses flow into the torrent in flood as formula 1 cars return into the track after the pit-stop. He had to maintain the concentration high, aware that the least hesitation could be fatal.

The 500 and Sultanahmet: photographic souvenir of a concrete dream. Gianluca took the compliments and the slaps on the back of the people walking by, he was shaking hands and he receive many gestures of approval.

Sated on the shores of the Bosphorus, after an iskender, he sipped a clandestine Efes. Allah was wanted.

From the coast of the Bosphorus to the Greek waters, after having ploughed the soft asphalt of one day that has just liquefied.

One hundred and fifty kilometres of blind curves, hairpin curves, dark galleries dug in the rock, precipices, breathtaking landscapes, impetuous torrents, the Crna Glava at 2134 meters high; and then the very steep descent, toward the sea and the bay of Kotor and the sunset.

Back in Rome, Gianluca sent us a picture of his Fiat 500 in front of the Castel Sant'Angelo. You can read about his journey not only in this newsletter, but also in the magazine "4piccoleruote" and on the website of the Fiat 500 Club Italia. We hope you enjoyed following a friend of the Fiat 500 like Gianluca Florentini on his long and interesting trip as much as we did.

... according to texts of Gianluca Fiorentini (freely translated by employees of company of Axel Gerstl)