Last Tuesday an unusual car was parked amid the vehicles of the Polizia Municipale (Municipal Police).
It was a Google Maps Opel Astra with its 15-lens “camera”. Street View arrived in Livorno more than five years ago, as soon as they knew of our blog.
The rig keeps the device at a height of 8.2 feet (2.5 m) and also features GPS units for tracking location, and laser range scanners that capture 3D models of the car’s surroundings.
They must love opera at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. In their fleet of vehicle carrier ships we can find “Fidelio”, “Carmen”, “Aida”, “Falstaff”, “Tosca”, “Turandot” and many more like that. They even have two sister ships named one “Porgy” and the other “Bess”!
Ours is the 200-meter “Otello”, a sister ship of the above mentioned “Aida”. She is a PCTC (Pure Car Truck Carrier) with a capacity of 6.700 cars. (Picture taken in December 2012)
To call this tiny two-seater Maranello4 is a bold choice considered that here, and probably in the rest of the world, we are used to associate that name with the birthplace of the Ferrari.