By Frank Anigbo

Photos by Frank, Omar Tibi, and John Rowntree

The weather forecast was always certain that Saturday, May 4, would be a rain-free day for the 2024 edition of what is historically the first driving tour of the AONE events season. And so it was — dry! No sign of rain, but temperatures in the low 50s, chilly enough to perhaps discourage Spider owners from turning up.

But turn up, they did! Of the fifteen cars that arrived at the Bathing Beach in Hingham for the start, no less than nine were Spiders, most with their tops dropped, and spanning the entire series of classic Spiders to grace American shores.

Plenty of pastries and hot coffee were on hand to keep the 23 participants warm as we walked through the rather impressive show of classic and modern Alfa Romeos, talking to curious natives drawn to the spectacle.

The AONE South Shore Beach & Waterfront Tour was created, and had been run for many years, by Tom Lesko, AONE’s recently retired President who presided over the club for 24 years. He is local to the area and knows all variations of the tour route like, as they say, the back of his hand. For this year, however, he turned responsibility for planning and leading the tour to a person with significant impairment of directional awareness. That would be me!

I take this opportunity to give a hearty THANK YOU to Tom Lesko for driving the route with me the Monday before so that I could record it to guarantee that I wouldn’t get everyone miserably lost. I will elaborate on this recording business at the end of this report.

Our convoy departed soon after 10am with a right turn through a traffic light that was guaranteed to break up our long train, but provide an easier opportunity to regroup the convoy than any other way we could have started. The first bit of the drive was a short exploration of a little bit of Hingham Harbor, edged with beautiful waterfront homes.

Then we drove out of Hingham in earnest to head toward Hull with its remnants of structures that spoke of its heyday as a holiday destination, to our first stop at Nantasket Beach. After a 15 to 20 minute break, we left Nantasket Beach to drive farther into Hull as straight road turned into winding road on its way to the hilltop Hull Village Cemetery with expansive views of the ocean around Hingham, Hull, and Boston beyond.

We left Hull Village Cemetery to drive all the way to the end of land in Hull, turned around, and headed back the way we came, then with a branch off Hull toward the seriously impressive towns and vistas of Cohasset and Scituate, hugging the coastline for a fair bit of this leg of our tour. As in years past, we stopped at the Minot Beach overlook for the most beautiful photographic backdrop.

Unfortunately, our lunch reservation meant that we could only stay at Minot Beach for about ten minutes before jumping into the cars for the run back to Hull, happily retracing our tracks through Cohasset to Jake’s Seafood Restaurant for a proper sit-down for good food and conversation.

Tour Participants

John Rowntree – 1987 Spider Veloce
Doug Sondak – 1969 1750 Spider
Fred Dalrymple and Andrea Madeiros – 1969 1750 Spider
Duane Mersereau – 1964 Giulietta Sprint
Duane Mersereau’s sons – S4 Spider
Avi and Daria Grunin – 1968 1750 GTV
Frank and Axel Anigbo – 1971 1750 GTV
Andrew and Allison Brody – 1958 Giulietta 750 Spider
Jim Scutti – 1971 1750 Spider
Omar Tibi – 2023 Giulia Veloce
Gary and Tereza Prime – 1963 Giulia 101 Spider Abnormale
Mike Henriksen – 2023 Giulia Quadrifoglio
Mike and Diane McGeough – 1967 Duetto
Dan Donovan – 2018 Giulia
Peter Walker and Meg Anderson – 2005 Porsche Boxster S

Calimoto, My New Bestie

Now, a few words about the piece of tech that made it possible for me to lead this driving tour and actually end up where I’d intended.

I’d heard about Calimoto, an app built for motorcycle touring clubs, from Harry Metcalf of Harry’s Garage fame on YouTube. I figured there’s no reason it wouldn’t work for cars so I downloaded it, looked at it briefly, and then forgot all about it. But as I discussed the route with Tom Lesko, and with the feeling of dread that I was about to lead a long line of cars to someone’s dead-end driveway with no way to turn around, I remembered that app I downloaded over a month before that said something about recording your route as you drive it, and then play it back with both visual and audio feedback, just like the GPS guidance on your mobile phone. Calimoto was exactly what I needed.

I recorded the entire route with Tom Lesko directing on the Monday before the tour, and then did a rehearsal drive a few days later, this time with Calimoto telling me exactly where to go.

And that, people, is the only reason we didn’t end up in New Jersey!