by Roberto Chiodi
June 3. There is a circle of curious swallows in front of the terrace of the room, here at Aktau. The hotel is set into the cliff and from the hall you go down, facing the seafront promenade, one of the attractions (in addition to the monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria ship) of this city hundreds of sandy kilometers away from previous destinations. We have established our headquarters there for a couple of days, thus avoiding the Fiat 500 concrete risks of getting stuck in the sand during the 1.500 kilometers of intermediate stops. Then we will disembark at Baku, the opposite bank, gateway to strips of countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye) which will be the European prelude to the arrival in Paris: the primary objective of this crazy adventure aboard a small car that is an “icon of Italian genius” as much as you like, but at the limits of survival in difficult road situations even for the camels that we meet every now and then in the desert steppes.
The race? At the top there is a fight on the edge of seconds between the Chevrolet (the Argentine crew's team maintains the lead) and the Porsche 911. But it should be noted that both brands are also present at the bottom of the list: a testament to the risk taken when pushing these racing cars to the limit. Our 500 is in order and we are sure that it will do its duty to carry us to triumph under the arrival arch of Place Vendôme. The appropriate spells are allowed, of course.
