The Road to Geneva The Road to Geneva
The Geneva Auto Show opens this week and this is the annual gathering that many in the industry look forward to. Geneva... The Road to Geneva

The Geneva Auto Show opens this week and this is the annual gathering that many in the industry look forward to. Geneva is a glamorous place. It’s a classy show on neutral ground that comes around every year in early spring.

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Staying in Geneva for the show used to be great, but in recent times has now become all but untenable for working media on their own ticket due to overblown hotel prices. Even for the industry, hotels in Geneva are now something of a lottery.

Then there’s the simple matter of getting there. Many of course fly to Geneva, but if you’ve the time, another highly attractive option is to drive. Yes, it takes longer, costs more but the quality of the roads and driving experience (if you pick the right way) can more than make up for that. Besides, it’s doing something different….

Case in point, a few shows back, I decided to try a new route to the Geneva Palexpo. This involved me flying to Italy to pick up a car for the drive.  My idea was spend a day or so in Turin, then drive across and up to the show, then return.

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Thus, waiting for me at the fabled Jet Hotel by Turin’s Caselle airport was the attractive press fleet Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1.4 MultiAir (170ps) with 6-speed TCT auto box that you see here. Full disclosure: I am a long serving Alfisti with a lot of ‘previous,’ but I’m not blind to their foibles.

In any case, I’d never driven that spec Giulietta before. So again, something new. That’s good.

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After a few hours ‘lost’ in Turin’s magical Biscaretti museum and some fine local food, not least in the backstreet Alla Mole pizzeria as recommended by The Times, above, I eventually head out of town, following those big green autostrada signs towards Aosta and M. Bianco (aka the Mont Blanc tunnel), passing up through the well known ski resort of Courmayeur on the way…

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On both sides of the tunnel, the mountains and weather were simply majestic and against that backdrop, I don’t mind saying the Alfa really did capture the eye. You had to be there…

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Thereafter, the trip regrettably started to go less than perfectly. The hotel I’d booked months earlier turned out to be rather less than deluxe (it was then pretty much the only thing left for reasonable money, looked OK and had ‘good’ reviews on Trip Advisor, but hey, caveat emptor etc…).

The Geneva show was its usual fascinating self. As ever, being reasonably compact, Geneva is a great show for getting around, grabbing the stories and meeting people. It’s everyone’s favourite show.

Post Palexpo, although I didn’t plan it that way, my TomTom decided to take me back to Turin via the Frejus tunnel. Annoying that, as I’d already bought a Mont Blanc return so found I now had to pay all over again. Oh joy.

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The good news was that I now had a chance to stop by Cesana, near the Sestriere ski resort where the Hotel Chaberton is a lovely traditional Italian mountain escape (I’ve stayed there twice before). A cappucino and before long, batteries are restored all is well again with the world…

Eventually, I’m back in Turin again, dropping the Giulietta back at Fiat’s iconic Lingotto base (yes, the one with the race track in the roof…).

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The Giulietta? Then as now, it’s a car high on style inside and out. And the spirit, refinement and economy of the 1.4 MultiAir engine remains a genuine draw. As an alternative to the usual suspects, I can really see the appeal of the Giulietta and that’s both head and heart talking…

When I drove this particular Giulietta, though, I just wished FCA had spent more time creating higher level steering feel and a smoother TCT box to build on the car’s driver appeal.