You are right--renting an Alfa in Italy can be a challenge. We jumped
through hoops and finally got one when we went to the Mille Miglia in 2001.
My daughter and her boyfriend (now husband--because of the Alfa?) went a few
years ago and I 'encouraged' them to rent an Alfa--again not a
straightforward procedure. She wrote an article about her experience which
appeared in the Alfa Digest a couple years ago. If you haven't seen it, see
below.
Ciao!
Timothy in Santa Barbara
'67 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super
'71 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Super
'92 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce
'71 Alfa Romeo F-12 Van (Furgone)--sold!
'55 Chevrolet Belair
'80 Harley Davidson Wide Glide -- sold!
'00 Jaguar XJ8
'81 Ford F150 Supercab Pick Up Truck
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My father is an Alfa nut. He's got 4 different kinds in the driveway, Alfa
newsletters, Alfa baseball hats, sweatshirts, and luggage. Last year he
even got my mom an Alfa watch on Ebay. He makes a pilgrimage to the
Consorso Italiano in Monterey every year, and once he even dragged my mother
to Milano for the Mille Miglia.
So when I announced to my Dad that my boyfriend, Mark, and I were planning a
trip to Rome and Tuscany, he immediately began pushing his Alfa agenda.
"You must rent an Alfa in Italy!" he commanded excitedly. "There's no way
to drive out in Italian countryside except in an Alfa. The Alfa 147 would
be perfect: economical and cool."
"Sure," I entertained. Other than my love for my cute VW New Beetle, I
really don't care about cars. However, I figure my parents are very
tolerant about indulging my interests - if it would bring my dad vicarious
joy if I rented an Alfa, why not? (Besides, he said he'd loan me his
European cell phone for the trip, so I figured I owed him something).
Little did I realize what I was getting us into. My father posted
questions on the online Alfa Digest asking other obsessive cyber-souls how
they secured Alfa vehicles on European vacations. He forwarded Mark and I
all the responses, and soon our inboxes were full of stories of trials and
tribulations. As it turns out, renting a specified brand of car is more
difficult than it sounds. We followed the advice of others and made our
reservation with Europecar, despite the fact that they refused to guarantee
us any particular type of car.
Once in Rome, we had our hotel concierge call Europecar the day
before our scheduled pickup, hoping her authentic Italian accent could help
us nail down our desired auto. No such luck.
"Go to the closest pickup location," she instructed us. "If they
don't have an Alfa you want, they can probably arrange for you to go to the
larger lot near the train station and pick one up there."
We agree. After the next day's panini and gelato lunch we make our
way to the Europecar office - a tiny hole in the wall on a cobblestone
street close to the Borghese Gardens. Thankfully, the one agent on duty,
Gianni, speaks good English.
Mark and I explain to him what we're hoping for, and we
spontaneously concoct a fib about my father is joining us on our trip, and
we want to pick him up and take him to Tuscany in an Alfa (how else can we
explain why it matters to us to get this car?)
We tell him that my dad owns 4 Alfas: a Spider, 2 Giulias ("Ah, old
Alfas", he exlaims!) - and lastly an Alfa called a "Fugone." It's an old
Alfa van, a heap of a vehicle really - it looks like a beat up VW bus and
drives like a tractor. But my father loves it because it's rare and quirky
(Alfa made them as commercial vehicles, intended to transport supplies and
parts between businesses).
Anyway, nobody has EVER heard of a Fugone, and this really gets to
our Italian clerk: learning about a new type of Alfa from an American
couple. We can tell he's mighty impressed.
But alas, he has no Alfa 147's in stock. Plan B, to pick one up
from another Europecar lot is thwarted too: nobody has this car on the lot
at the moment.
But by now Gianni has taken pity on us and our quest so he's trying
to be helpful. "I do have an Alfa GT available," he tells. "It's a hot
car. Men wearing gold chains drive this car. You'd need an upgrade,
though."
Although my boyfriend is not exactly the gold-chain wearing type, we
like the idea of driving around a pimp car on our tour of Tuscany. Because
this is Italy, though, we have to call Europecar in the U.S. - where we
initially made our reservation - in order to find out how much more we'd
have to pay to upgrade to a this luxury vehicle.
After a few holds and transfers we finally learn it will cost $800
more for 5 measly days, plus a 100 km per day limit (if we exceed this
limit, we would get charged $30 per km). Needless to say, this surpasses
our modest budget, so we rescind.
Then a light bulb goes on in Mark's head: "Maybe we can just peek at
the GT," he asks Gianni, "Ogle it for nostalgia's sake, and then drive off
in our generic Renault?"
Gianni looks around the room and thinks a moment. He is the one-man
staff at this shop, and normal protocol is for him to call the garage and
they bring the car around 5 minutes later. To show us the GT he would have
to walk us to the garage. Then he shrugs - as we have discovered from our
time in Roma, the people have few compunctions about closing up shop on a
whim - so Gianni did what the Romans do and simply locked up.
Our trek to the garage takes 10 minutes through meandering
cobblestone streets, and then takes us to an escalator that plunges us down
underneath the Borghese Gardens to a massive underground parking lot. We
find the Europecar department, and Gianni finds an Alfa GT for us to marvel
over.
We are a little disappointed, however, that this lovely vehicle has
sustained a number of serious dents. We pointed them out to our guide and
asked, "What gives?"
"The people who rent this car," explains Gianni. "They listen to
loud music, they drive fast, and they ruin cars," he scoffs. Gianni is a
soft-spoken and elegant Italiano, and clearly this reckless machismo upsets
his sensibilities. We have already learned that he reads books by Deepak
Chopra, and is taking a quiet vacation with his dog next month to Tunisia.
We lavish a little more attention on the coupe, then we start
walking over to the Econo cars to examine the thing we'll be driving.
There, parked amid the Opels and the Renaults, is a golden Alfa 147!
Gianni puts his hand on the hood - "it's warm!" he announces.
"Someone must have just turned it in. I think I can get it for you."
After a little reprimanding from his boss, (maybe he wasn't so happy
that our guide left his post?) and a bit of a wait to deal with the
paperwork and an inspection, we finally get our cherished set of wheels.
I think we appreciate it all the more after our near-2 hour ordeal
procuring it. It, indeed, is a fine machine. It runs on diesel,
accelerates with a kick, and handles deftly on those curvy Tuscan roads.
Plus, it looks great in the pictures.
So it looks like the old man may make an "Alfisti" of me yet!
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