Paris

Strangely enough we got into Paris without any trouble and then made our way to the Eiffel tower. Unfortunately at the top cloud coverage meant we couldn't soe the famous sites.

It's been snowing!

We left Monte Carlo on a beautiful sunny day and taken the N85 over some amazing passes above Monaco. These wide fast roads with sweeping bends make a change from the passes we've done up to now. I can't help imaging what a fantastic road this would be to drive a Ferrari on.

On our approach to Grenoble it started to snow and the ploughs were soon out. Not like the chaos in the UK when there's a bit of snow!

Col ee Turini

What another great montain pass! Not the most challenging of passes (although the leaves and rocks on the road, brought down by the rain did make it intesting to say the least!) But certainly a very pretty one.

We arrived at our hotel, the Novotel, jvst arond the corner from the casino, and made our way straight to the bar, for Vodka Martinis (shaken, not stirred of course!) This is a fantastic modern hotel, with plasma TVs in your room, but normally you would pay over €300 a night to stay here!

After quite a few cocktails we took a stroll down to the harbour and the Stars and Bars restaurant for a burger. This is a lively bar and you can wait quite a while for a table, but it's worth the wait and not too (for Monte Carlo) at €14 for our burgers.

Lingotto

Bah... It's been raining so we can't do the actual wall today as the cobbled track gets slippery when wet. However, we've been allowed up on the rooftop and those that are brave enough, have walk up the steep banks to get a fem pictures.

Now it's onto Monte Carlo, but not before we get a few more mountain passes, including the Col de Turini.

Turin parade

The Turin police have, as usual, provide an excellent service, by escorting the Jobbers in a parade around Turin. This year, the tourist girls have surpassed themselves, by ensuring the parade takes in all the key fikm locations from the original film.

It's just a shame the weather has turned and started to rain.

Dreaming

Back in Turino now and we've been treated to dinner and now the Dream Exhibition. On display are concept and prototype cars developed since 1950 to the present day, including this wonderful Lancier Stratus prototxpe from 1970.

Turino

Yeah, after last year pathetic attempt at navigating Turin, this year we've arrived with the organisers.

We was going to ditch our notes, but thought better of it,

Ferrari

The ultimate car colletion, with just about every Ferrari old and new that you can think of, at the museum. But i did so have the urge to shout out "Hamilton!!" our local lad.

We've had a fantastic time at Imola and tomorrow we head for Turin, but tonight is our farewell dinner.Piazzale "amedeo di savoia"

Longing for a Zonda

If the Lancia was one of Chris' favorite cars, then this is definitely mine. A gorgeous Zonda tucked away in our hosts a garage that also contains numerous Maserati.

I have to admit that i only have eyes for the Zonda.

Dam It

What a beautiful warm afternoon we're having here today!

After lunch todays run took us to the breathtaking dam at Ridracoli, where we've been given special permission to drive on to the top of the Dam. Unfortunately pictures just can convey the size of this structure, but looking down on the cars, it did make a fabulous view.

Time to return to the hotel now, and the route is up to individuals, so we'll see what we can find on the way back.

Into the mountains again

Well we had another great night last night with yet another delicous meal followed by plenty of drink and then Italian Job auction, which raised over £3,000 for the Charity.

Today, we're off to the south of Imola, where, yesterday we found some wonderful twisty turny roads. One road which was in excess of 40km climbed over 1500 metres and was delightful to drive in the warm autumn sunshine.

We've managed to get a couple more mountain passes in today on the Navigational, but there's been loads of cyclists also on the road, but not like the cyclists on Stelvio. These seemed pleased to see us.

Wot a Castle!

Oh my God, what a find. The afternoons excursion involved a visit to little castle who!s owner had a small collection of abou 50 cars plus bikes which included rare Bugatti and one of Chris's all time favorites, Lancia Stratos.

Ducati

We've had a tour of the Ducati Museum and then onto the factory. Employing 1000 staff the factory produces 100 bikes per day in the winter and over 200 in the summer.

There's some stunning bikes here, but if you want one you'll have to wait about 3 months.

And the price, well that varies but we were shown one on the production line for €63,000.

2 Oranges or a Pair?

First leg of the Navimational today, is to Ducati. We managed to get lost twice on the way, but still arrived in plenty of time.

Special stages

As per usual, we've had some cunning special stages, including the nerve wrecking cup crushing and the forward and reversing challenge, where you have touch thd marker without knocking it over.

We all try to act cool prior to our turn, bv when it comes to doing the test we seem to be possesed by the gear crunching fairy! Paul and Becky would be proud of mum and dads attempt of protecting the family honour, probably one of the fastest, wheel squeeling goes of the day, it's just a shame that no one seemed to have explained to the that "ya supposed to get the bloody cups!" Only joking, but i think he's in trouble, because as they crossed the lind i!m sure i neard another squeal...

That's my car your driving ;-)

San Marino Circuit

Or otherwise knowm as Circuit De Enzo Ferrari De Imola. We've been treated to a huge buffet before we do some special stages which should be interesting in the Clubman. We're hoping to the get a couple of laps of this famous track.

Day one on The Job

After yesterdays downpour we've woken to wonderfully warm sunshine. After a hearty breakfast at which Chris appeared to be going for the world record of cake eating in the morning, it's time for the cars to be scruitineered before they're issued team numbers.

The Navigational rally starts this afternoon after a briefing from Freddy on etiquitte during the run and then we're off to the San Marino racetrack.

We've arrived!

Unforvnately the weathers turned but still Chris can't wait to give Snoopy a bath, and Snoopy's found a friend already.

On to The Job

We spent the morning doing some more mountain passes including the impressive 2000 metre, single track Manghan. This is another technical drive, but luckily we had a clear road apart from a couple of lorries putting out the snow poles ready for winter. This is great passes but not one to be done on a day the locals use ht for a cycling tour which is evident from the chalked messages on the road. Spectators as with the Tour de France write messages to encourage the participants, but to be honest when you see the climbs on some of these passes, i never comprehend how these men and women cycle up them.

This morning we had a couple of huge Stag Dears run out whilst we we're on one of the passes. They were really awesome to watch and made a change from falling dogs.

We've left the mountains behind and now making our way to Imola, for the start of the Italian Job 2008, and boy what a difference in temparature. In the mountains we struggled to get above 10 degrees but now in basking in 21.

Humm... Time for some icecream me thinks!

Room 101

Crikey we're in room 101, i hope it doesn't mean we get binned like they do in the program!

This evening we're at the hotel Ideal Park in Laives just outside of Bolsano. From the outside this hotel looks nothing special, but inside it's like a different world, with 2 swimming pools, including one on the roof with spectacular views over the valley. Our room is HUGE. Prior to our swim this evening (we chickened out, when it came to the rooftop pool) i actually went for a jog in our room!

We've had another amazing day, doing 8 mountain passes before we found a gem of a restaurant, where we had the menu of the day which consisted of Four Cheese pasta for starters and Escalape for main and all for €9 each. Hence, tonight we're doing another Bear Grylls and having dinner in our room with a bottle of Prosseco for drinkies.

HIC, I hope i've typed this OK!

It's raining Dogs?

After an early start to avoid any of the predibted snow, we made our way to the Fluelapass the through the Livingo Tunnel after which we found diesel at €0.83 or 66 pence a litre! Only problem we didn't need any fuel. Darn it!

From Livingn we decided on another pass instead of Stelvio which we've done previously. So we decided on the Mortirolo and boy was we pleased. The Stelvio might be higher, but this starts lower down, then climbs and climbs and climbs some more. This stunning single track pass is technically a much more challenging drive than Stelvio and we've picked this as our all time favourite pass.

New one today as well. We had a dog and a load of stones fall off a mountain, just in front of us. EEK. Dont know who was more shocked, Chris or the dog.

Nevermind i think the dog was a ROCKVEILLER than a Rottveiller.

Room definitely with a view

We!ve arrived at Davos on a beautiful sunny and warm Autumn afternoon. We're stopping at the hotel Alpina, which is an older hotel but wonderfully maintained by its very helpful owner, who checked the status of the mountain passes before we set out this morning as they were expecting snow last night.

Davos is a great stop off point but at this time of year at lot of the restaurants are closed. So just like Bear Gryles we sourced our meal last night from the local resoures. Yep, you know it the Coop!

Lunch in Luzern

After a brief (very brief) visit we've entered Switzerland and making our way towards the mountains. On our way we've done a small detour to do a short tour of Lake Luzern and a bit of cross country to do the Sattel pass, before we get to Davos.

The Sattel pass itself isn't very interesting but the countryside jolly was well worth the effort and made a change from driving the motorways.

Topsy Turvy eating

Lart night we had a real feast in Metz at Le Bouche a Oreille. This restaurant was recommended on Tripadvisor and it didn't disapoint. We had a huge cheese fomdue with a bread and salad between us, with a plate full of meats all washed down with a superb bottle of wine. And all for €50. This little restaurant is qurky and sureal with plenty to look at and photo, including bikes on the ceilng!

Namur

Yummy.. Time for a quick stop in Belgium and it bit of it's famous chocolate.

Nanur makes a good stop off point, it's easy to drivd into the centre, pkenty of parking, great chocolate and easy to get out of town again. However, a massive bonus is the cheap diesel at £0.87 a litre!

Fill me up please.

What a beautiful day

Here we go for the wakiest race of the year. The 2008 Italian Job.

OK, so the plan of action was to behave ourselves this year and do the Italian Job in 2009, but after a little bit of convincing (very littke convincing i might add!) we're doing it again this year.

We're off to Metz (in France) today and we've already met a couple of other Jobbers whilst waiting for the ferry. One team im a classic are off to Milan first!

There's nothing quite like doing the the Italian Job the long way round!