Pisa: Leaning Towards the Fiat 500 Relaunch

The brand new Fiat 500, or Cinquecento, was relaunched on the fourth of July, its 50th birthday, in Torino with a show choreographed by Marco Balich, who crafted the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2006 winter Olympics.

The original Fiat 500 went out of production in 1975, although you see a surprising number of the tiny cars on the road today.

On a pre-Olympics trip to Torino in 2005, my driver told me that Fiat was in a bad way. "It's over, finished," he said. But newcomer Sergio Marchionne turned Fiat around and it's making money these days.

Shown in the picture is the Fiat 500 being readied for its big show in Pisa, in a corner of the Piazza dei Cavalieri. Few tourists were around at the time, but there were throngs of them surrounding the leaning tower waiting for their curtain call to pretend to hold the tower up for that classic photo everyone expects to get from you when you tell them you're going to Pisa. You people have to get around more. Here's a guide: Walking Tour of Pisa.