Today we started in the Tuscany region and traveled cross-country on our way back to Rome. About an hour into the journey, we stopped for our first bio-break when a message came over the radio: “I think I left my phone at the hotel.” The voice, of course, belonged to the recently underwear-less Tom Montor.
The whole tour volunteered to head back down the twisty roads to bail Tom out—though, notably, no one had volunteered earlier in the week to retrieve his underwear!
We then carved our way through more twisty roads to our lunch stop along the shores of the Mediterranean, where we enjoyed a fantastic seafood meal featuring grilled tuna, shrimp, and calamari. Some people even dipped their feet in the water.
After lunch, Suzie and Gail managed to delay our return by getting a flat tire. Thankfully, Blue Strada’s expert mechanic, Paulo, along with the UMN pit crew, had the tire off, plugged, and back on in no time. Steve McConnell proved especially skilled with the plug repair.
We reluctantly returned the Miatas after a short run on the Autostrada, with its “suggested” speed limit of 130 km/h.
The cars were brought back to the garage to be prepped for their next adventure, while the UMN group headed back to the hotel in Rome for a farewell dinner with the Blue Strada team—Claudio, Francesco, Paulo, and co-owner Joyce.
During dinner, we met a priest from Winnipeg who offered a blessing for our group. We gifted him some UMN maple syrup as a reminder of home, as he has now been appointed to the Caribbean.
Notably, UMN was the first tour ever to sell out an entire Blue Strada experience for a single Miata club.
Tomorrow, the group goes their separate ways—some returning to Canada, others heading to Milan and Switzerland, and a few continuing on to Sorrento. But we’ll all reunite again soon at KS on the Keys.
The friendships we’ve built, the laughter we’ve shared, the teamwork, and the pride in being Canadian made this trip unforgettable. I’m truly proud of every one of you.
