Take the food: It’s sensational. You simply cannot find a bad restaurant. Then consider trying to get something practical done, like paying your phone bill. The bureaucracy and lineups can be awful – that is when Sicilians actually bother to form a line, rather than just crowding around a closed kiosk – but, if you come at this time of year to the region where we stayed in the northwest, the place is empty. We had ancient, excavated Greek temples and towns, beaches, hiking trails and medieval castles all to ourselves.

Yes, the traffic can be hell but for pure driving enthusiasts, the narrow mountain roads, when not clogged – and ours almost never were – are pure heaven.

In July 2013, when first I reviewed the 2014 500L, I disliked its dimensions.

That has not changed from an aesthetic perspective. I humbly quote myself: “With its flattened roof, the 500’s iconic drumlin shape morphed into Masada.” But with four of us in the nuclear family, even though we all packed light, the regular 500 simply would not have made it out of the airport rental lot. The 500L was perfect for us and despite my bleating, even last year I admitted that it still drives like a Fiat.

But back to loading and getting it on the road. Though it was a 2015 with under 2,000 km on the dial, it was already well loved, with scrapes on three corners. This story’s opening paragraphs hint at why.

Inside, the L’s dimensions are designed more for the dolce vita types in the south who have a touch of junk in the trunk and not some stick thin Milanese supermodel. It replaces the 500’s signature flat metal dash with a more practical one offering plenty of storage space. And the rest of the L takes its cues from there. The luggage volume is 605 L versus the 500’s Barbie™-doll sized 269. It has a false floor providing an extra few inches, which we availed ourselves of, soaking up every last cubic millimetre like some mountain Tetris game.

And driving? The 500 has a grip outdone only by Mini’s mini-er products. Though 147 mm wider and a whopping 702 mm longer than the 500, the L still handled magnificently on the roads. Its 10.7 m turning circle was an issue on the hairpin turns, which are as common as cell phones and smokers here, but I quickly adjusted and simply did a five-point turn each night to avoid adding to the already-made scratches when parking each evening at our rented mountain chalet. Which was where?

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