I have just returned from a few days away at a small town on the Ligurian coast - good sunny weather, but not too hot, sandy beaches, ice-cream and the usual smattering of Fiat 500s, 126's etc. It's usually difficult to see any interesting classics here unless they are participating in an event or are in a garage being repaired.

It was the last day of the break and I was with my little girl in the playground which was positioned next to the main road running through the town when I heard an interesting and familiar engine noise. I looked up to see a lovely red Fiat Dino 2.4 litre sail past with an elderly gentleman at the wheel. I just got a glimpse as the road was narrow and curved away but 10 minutes later we had finished up and while my wife went off with the little one in search of a resturant I took a quick walk in the direction of the Spider in the hope that he had parked up for lunch close by.

After a few minutes I spotted it parked up a side road and went to investigate. There was no-one about so I rang the doorbell where the car was parked but no answer. I then started writing a note to leave on the windscreen when someone approached asking me if they had parked in the wrong place thinking I was writing down their registration number! It turned out to be the very friendly retired owner who lived just across the road. We had a chat about the car and ownership, etc and the Italian Dino Club and exchanged details. He bought the car 11 years ago and has had a bare-metal respray returning it back to it's original colour. The interior is not original, but is a very nice cream leather and the engine has been worked on with varying results as well as the installation of a manual power steering unit.