I seriously love Alfas.
A couple weeks ago, I was at my buddy's art gallery in DT L.A. working on his Mercedes. It's an old w123 diesel wagon and it started running bad so he asked if I'd take a look. Like I said, he's a buddy, so there I was under the hood checking things out. I'm sort of the "car guy" in my group of friends.
There were 3 young-ish guys hanging out, looking at some art and chatting. Two were speaking Italian to each other but I thought nothing of it because this whole crowd speaks Italian, some live there, etc... One guy sauntered up and started asking me questions about what I was doing to the car, we started chatting. He had no accent, so I was surprised when he told me that he lived in Rome. He also told me that he was a gear head and that if someone was working on a car, he had to watch. I really liked this guy. I started telling him how jealous I was of the cars available in Europe that were not sold in the U.S.A., especially Alfas.
With that, he informed me that Alfa was coming back here, and furthermore, his cohort talking to my buddy inside was "Lapo".
Holy sheet. 
"I thought he looked familiar". Then it all came together, they were driving a raced-out Fiat Abarth and a new Dodge Charger SRT. "Lapo" is Lapo Elkann, famed international playboy and Gianni Agnelli's grandson. He is the heir to Fiat and his brother is the chairman of Fiat. Fiat owns Alfa Romeo, not to mention Ferrari and most of Chrysler(?)
My new friend started showing me amazing photos of the inside of the Ferrari factory on his phone, including all of the F1 cars in for service. He gave me his cell phone # and email + took mine and told me that if I "needed anything in Rome" this summer to give him a call. I told him that I wanted to go to the Ferrari factory, he said no problem, he goes once a week.
This all happened while I was wearing dirty mechanic's clothes and working out of the back of my beat-up old MB wagon on the street. Only in L.A. I freaking love this place.
Sorry for the highjack, but I do love Alfas.
