Three Men and a Car

Alfonso had planned the car journey in minute detail. It couldn't be easier, he said and told us the itinerary.

From Varese, the nearest city to the village where we lived, to Mendrisio-Lugano-Basel-Freiburgh-Frankfurt-Dusseldorf- Dortmund and then Amsterdam.

It would take less than twelve hours and he was sure that if we set off early enough we could be there before nightfall.

Although I could not drive, he was satisfied that he and Giovanni could share the driving.

He was the proud owner of a Lancia Aurelia, a car that had served him well for several years and still going strong.

As we negotiated the snaky St. Gotthard pass, the engine purred beautifully and we were making a good time with Alfonso behind the wheel.

There were many reasons why we had undertaken the trip, but the urgency of getting to our destination can be easily explained: the leader of our expedition had a girl in every port and was eager to reacquaint himself with a Dutch flame.

That seemed to be the immediate priority but our ultimate destination was to be London where the three of us were to attend a school for foreign students.

It was all part of an elaborate master plan that big Alf had thought up to be realised in the near future of which the crash course in English was the main driver.

What we weren't expecting was a different type of crash.

We had travelled half of our journey and Giovanni was our new chauffeur.

As we were approaching Karlsruhe, a city that at any other time I would have liked to explore, our visit came to an abrupt end

Crunching noises forebode serious problems. It looked as if the vehicle had drawn its last breath and so it proved. A new gearbox was needed.

We were lucky to find a Lancia distributor but the sad news was that our car's model, the Aurelia, had been superseded by a new model, the Flaminia, and spare parts for our motor were no longer available.

There was no alternative but to arrange for the car to be sent to Italy. That meant that we just had enough money left to reach London by train and had to skip Amsterdam for the time being.

We managed to get to Amsterdam later, on other occasions,  although Alf's original master plan never came to fruition but that is another story.

© Luigi Pagano 2023

I.P. Journey - Whatever happens in your poem or story, it has to take place between departure and arrival