Cinquecento

Once upon a time, I was a young fella too. Not bad looking by some accounts. I used to chase girls all around London town on two wheels and four. Soho was my personal playground. I was living the dream as they say. I didn't know it then but I was an "Absolute Beginner".

But if I'd had a Cinquecento I would have been even worse and probably more successful, Fiat 500: the essence of urban Italian cool, oozing quirky personality. with the added attraction or warning of suicide doors on the original 1957 4-door. In an imaginary hive of Lambretta and Vespas she would be Queen Bee.

Rather like the Italians in general then: noisy, erratic, stylish, full of "gioia della vita" always demanding of our attention and admiration, brilliant and at the same time rubbish in lots of ways but always adorable.