No Pandas Just A Pandane At The Zoo

 I don't have that many big favourite coaches but I always loved the Pandane. This one was in Berlin at The Zoo whilst on contract to Globus. What always amazes me is how tiny the registration numbers are in Italy. I can understand them not liking bus spotters but you would think they would be more than happy to make them visible for the traffic police lol.

Fiat Trieste Inbus 261

Rather like the French with so much elegance and beauty all around mundane considerations like the design of it's buses don't matter to much, or so it seems. A typical Italian Fiat town buses looks as if it's ready to depart in Triente.

Remember Atlas Express?

I don't think the tour operator who owned this chunky and angular coach seen in Trieste had anything to do with the parcel carrier once a familiar sight in the UK. I had forgotten about them till now but I seem to recall they had green 7.5ton vans with a map of the world on the sides. As well as Mercedes coaches we are treated to an interesting mix of Fiats so prevalent in Italy.

A Covet Setra in Trieste

A dual-entrance Setra coach in Trieste has to compete with the cruise ships for our glances down by the quays at Trieste. I don't suppose they have many bus spotters in Italy as those long numbers are rather tiny almost useless.

Fiat Bus in Trieste

Italian town buses were painted orange but the next time I went there they were a rather unimaginative orange and black.  As might be expected most were built by Fiat in a variety of sizes and this example was seen in the interesting coastal city of Trieste where the unimaginably long Russian Eastern Block empire reached it's end here in the Mediterranean sunshine as there was nowhere else to go.

Fabbio! Oh I mean Faggio

I must admit I loved the Italian styling of these Padane 2X bodies, this one had slipped across the Italian border not too far away in Switzerland and the Scania 112 was making it's way through the interesting town of Chur.

333: Italian Fiat bus in Trieste

When I'm out of Britain on holiday when I see fleet numbers I often think of others with the same number from my past and instantant 333 reminds me of a Coventry MCW/Daimler CVG or a Southampton St Helens bonnet PD2 with one of the ugly horribly proportioned Park Royal bodies.

Padane: Sightseeing in Trieste

A bit plain and less eye catching than some of their products but in the same way I'm pretty sure it's built on a Fiat chassis I believe this coach was built by Italy's best known 'carrozzeria' Padane. Shot in the early Eighties one can easily see how these continental designs were also influencing the British market.

Padane ZX bodied Renault at Berlin Zoo

Berlin Zoo is a great place to catch sight of all the visiting coaches, and as well as German vehicles can be found more variety like this Padane ZX bodied Renault from Italy working for Globus Gateway. As with everything else today there is not so much variety between nations on offer.

Pandene: Fabulous Coaches

I still rather marvel at these Italian Pandene bodies such as this one on a coach from from Italy on a Mercedes 0303 seen in Copenhagen. It belonged to a firm called Scionti and bore the registration 78100

Florence - Pisa

I was in Italy a few years ago for the Florence Biennale Art Exhibition where I was showing my work. A cloud hung over the last day at the end of the stay as this being Italy a national rail and bus strike was threatened making it difficult to catch my plane home to Stanstead. In the end all turned out well as it did not affect private operators like Bus Europe who supplied this Irizar bodied Scania on their service which competes with the railway to Pisa.

Intimissimi in Florence

Going abroad on holiday all those new foreign words play games with your mind and after a few days this spelling of intimacy might not look right but it seems okay. Here is a less conventional view of the city of Firenze taken in December 2004 when I was exhibiting there in an art show. I'm not quite sure if I really like the green and orange ATAF Iveco buses but that orange was the colour all the town buses used to wear for many years in Italy so it must be progress.

A long way from Bolton

This Northern Counties bodied DAF double-decker had been converted to open top for it's new role as a sightseeing bus in Florence which was a long way from North Manchester where it started life with Blue Bus of Horwich.

Next Hop-Off : Tower of London

This Northern Counties bodied DAF double-deck tour bus hard at work in the Italian city of Florence in December 2004 looks as if it has just been whisked away from off the London streets for despite having been modified for a new life in Europe it still bore the Yorkshire number-plate it carried when new to Blue Bus of Horwich near Bolton.

ATAF Firenze: Iveco 2420

December 2004 and I was busy taking some good pictures on the first day in Florence till one outraged local citizen, a middle-aged man took exception to my hobby of photographing buses and girls, tried to make a citizens-arrest and when I refused kicked and stamped on my camera before running off.