In the early 70's when our family was living in Salerno in southern Italy all our uncles drove Fiat 500's. At that time the roads were always heaving with these iconic cars which brought affordable motoring to the Italian masses in the same way that Henry Ford heralded the beginning of affordable motoring with his model Ford T in the thirties. The first model of the  Fiat 500 was infact produced in 1936 and was the smallest mass produced car of its time.

In Salvo's Salumeria, if you look around closely, you will see an old photo of our Mother and Father in Salerno, with a Fiat Topolino in the background. It wasn't our father's Topolino, he could only afford a little vespa!  The successor of the Fiat Topolino (Italian for little mouse!) 500 was the Nuova (New) 500 which began production in 1957 with the last model rolling of the production line in 1975.

Whilst living in Salerno,  when our restaurant, Trattoria dello Sport, was closed  the whole extended family would often go off to the beach in a procession of Fiat 500's. I would cram into the back with my two brothers with beach towels, buckets, spades and all the paraphernalia that went with a day at the beach, piled high on top of our knees. The roll top sun roof was particularly useful as we would have our rolled up beach umbrella sticking out of it.

When  I was in Sicily in Easter 2005, visiting Palagonia my fathers home town, I marvelled at how many Fiat 500's were still on the roads nearly 30 years after they had ceased production. On my return I decided I had to try and track one down. As it was not the sort of car to be found at your local “Arthur Daley” second hand car showroom I turned to the internet for assistance. I found just what I was looking for on Ebay and, although I had never previously purchased anything at this marvel of modern commerce, I successfully bid for a left hand drive restored imported model on EBay.

The previous owner had christened  the car Bubbles and I was happy to keep that name. When Bubbles is not been driven around Headingley by myself and my son Leon Bubbles is normally parked outside Salvo's Salumeria. He seems to be content with the aroma of coffee wafting out of the Salumeria door!

If you also fancy a bit of light entertainment then we recommend you check out http://www.fiat500.cc/ictossi.swf provided you have a fairly decent PC you should be OK. We thought it was highly amusing!

Also: See Bubbles at the wedding of the year!

By John Dammone