Early in July, I received an e-mail from Claudio Ivaldi asking me to publish an advertisement announcing the staging of a Maserati meeting on the 18th July. This meeting was to be held in memory of Marco Turci, the Maserati enthusiast who sadly lost his life at the wheel of his 2.24v. early this year.

I telephoned my friend Rossano of Repartocorse asking him if he was attending the meeting and if so, could I travel to the meeting with him in his Biturbo Si. He welcomed the idea so I promptly booked a cheap flight to Montechiari, near Verona, via Ryanair.

I then phoned organiser Davide Zaccarelli informing him that I would be attending the rally. It was then that he informed me that there was every chance that the meeting would include a visit to the Maserati factory that would include a guided tour of the production line.

I arrived at Montechiari at around 10:00am Friday morning, hired a Renault Clio via Hertz and drove down to Salo on Lake Garda. There I had booked a room at my friend Paolo Rossi's magnificent new Hotel Bellerive. This hotel opened in early June and is located down by the new marina along the Lungolago (lakeside) at Salo.

On saturday morning I travelled down to Modena to visit my friend Marcello Candini's workshop to view a pair of Brembo brake calipers which he had put by for me. Having agreed a price, I arranged for him to fit them in September when I take my Ghibli to Italy to attend Maserati's 90th anniversary celebrations. Whilst there I was able to take photos of some the fine classic Maseratis being serviced in his workshop. These will appear in the next few days on the 'Candinis of Modena' page.

From there I phoned Davide and he very kindly invited me to his grandmother's house for lunch and later that afternoon I visited his home to view his fine collection of Maserati memorabilia. That evening I phoned Rossano and made arrangements to meet up with him at Desenzano the following morning. On the Sunday morning Rossano duly picked me up at Desenzano and we travelled down to Mirandola, about 30 km outside Modena, to attend the meeting. At this point I would like to add how impressed I was with the performance of his Biturbo Si and my white knuckles during our journey bore witness to this!