Sunday we had a delightful lunch at La Collina in Citta di Castello with Susan and Gary. Here’s a picture.

We sat outside. The weather has been delightfully cool after a short hot spell. We had two plates of assorted Bruschetta. One with meats, the other veggys. Susan said they were known for their brace or grilled meats. Luther and I had the mixed grill. It was only OK in my opinion. The chicken was nice and moist. The lamb not so much. It was fun.

Yesterday we decided to go down to Perugia to “car alley”. Just about every single type of car has a dealer in the same general area. We are shopping for our “practical” car. It has to have seats for four and decent luggage space so we can pick up people who visit. Since it is “my” car I want to like it as well. Not that we can actually buy a car yet. We still have to get our Permesso and residency before we can buy a car. Stupid rule. We have no idea why it is so, but it is.

So we started with Alfa Romeos. I love the little Mito. It may be a tad too small though but I still love it. I want to keep the price around 25,000 Euro or less. When the actual time comes to buy there seem to be a decent amount of used cars at the dealers too so that would be an option. Luther likes the larger Alfa Guilietta. It is a really nice car too. I have pictures of the Mito.

Cute huh?

Next we saw the BMWs right next door. The One series is what I was looking at. I can’t afford a new one but there was a nice little used one there for about the right price. Here are pictures.

Next we saw the Mini Coopers because they were housed in the same building as the BMWs. It is too expensive and I don’t really like the Countryman which is the big Mini. Here’s a pic anyway.

Next we visited the Opel dealer where the Opel Corsa is about the right size and the price is about right. It doesn’t call out to me though.

Next we went to the Skoda dealer. This car is way cheaper than the others with nice features. It also gets very good reviews. BUT, and it’s an interesting BUT, there is some stigma attached to a former eastern Europe brand. Now it is owned and built by VW. Here are pics.

We stopped into the Porsche dealer but they had nothing. Only Cayennes and Panamaras. Next door was the VW dealer so we stopped in to look at the VW Golf. We rented one of these and liked it a lot. It is a nice little car with plenty of room.

After we looked at cars we went to a recommended place for lunch (natch!) and it was nice. I had the pasta with seafood. Luther the “little ears” pasta with fresh tomatoes. Nice bottle of wine from just south of where we ate.

When we got back home Luther went on the internet where you can “build” your car. It is very funny that the base price is for the car with the smallest Gasoline engine. We want a diesel because they are way more economical and are just as fun to drive. When you get the diesel add about 4,000 Euro to the price right off the bat! Also there is no dealing on the cars. All dealers will charge the same price. This makes shopping kind of nice as there is no pressure. Everyone was fine with us just checking out the showroom cars.

So now we just have to wait until we can actually BUY a car!