Team Bumble Beemer is safely back in the UK now, with some brilliant memories of a fantastic week of rallying escapades.

Day 4 saw us exploring the towns and villages of Lazio, south of Rome, attempting to get pics of the whole team, plus car, plus a local, in front of public buildings. That task took us from twisty medieval hilltop towns all the way to the mediterranean coast at Anzio. Photo challenge completed, we headed back to Rome, where we bid a fond farewell to our faithful 520i, met up with team manager Emma, and made our way to Piazza Navona for the S2N closing ceremonies.

Although TBB's challenge points total wasn't good enough to snag a medal this time, we had a great night, and enjoyed catching up with everyone we'd met on the road. And fortunately the circling Carabinieri didn't seem too concerned with enforcing the theoretical no-drinking-on-the-streets law, since at €8 a pint no-one could afford to drink in Café Bernini for long.

Once we get our memory cards sorted out, there should be more pics and videos from the rally to come. Until then, TBB would like to thank Justin and StreetSafari for organising a great rally, and also say a huge thank-you to everyone who sponsored us — including Gift Aid and offline donations, we've raised over £2000 so far for our charities.

Here's to the next one!

     

 After everyone dried off, we were presented with the day's challenge: to get photos of ourselves in costume with groups of bemused Italians. Sounds easy...

 We descended from the Alps and whizzed through tunnel after tunnel, culminating in an epic echoing airhorn duel with pursuing Staplers. After haranguing the locals into a couple of photo-ops, we took a detour to stop for pizza on the beautiful southern shores of Lake Garda. It was around this time that the blazing Italian heat made wearing a boiler suit and helmet start to seem less fun — we still had seven hours' driving ahead of us.

 As we headed south on the autostrada into Tuscany, we were greeted by darkening skies, which soon developed into several hours of heavy electrical storms. The next few hours of rain-soaked motorway driving were pretty grim, before the skies finally cleared about an hour from Viterbo.

 We pulled into town around 8pm and had our challenge photos scored by the S2N committee. Our efforts were redeemed by bonus points for getting more than ten perplexed locals in a single shot. Another hard day, but the end's in sight: tomorrow we swing south through Lazio toward Naples for the day's challenge, before doubling back to Rome for the S2N finale in Piazza Navona.

     

Street Safari are taking pictures from the road and uploading them to the S2N 2009 slideshow — so you can have a look at the other s2ners and Team Bumble Beemer in all their glory.

 It was a shorter but far more challenging day than yesterday, and we're looking forward to more relaxing roads tomorrow. We've also got to diagnose the suspension problem that developed today, but we're hopeful it's not serious. Looking forward to some Italian sunshine. It's also Stig day!

 France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France again, and Switzerland. About 1000kms in 11 hours, and we failed to spot any cops for the day's photo challenge.

 We also failed to snap a Ferrari 360 or 430 - the 612 we saw doesn't count.

 But we made it to Sarnen, witnessed some stunning scenery, and completed our own personal 5 Nations Challenge.

 After a well earned night's sleep, we're heading over the Alpine passes tomorrow to Italy. See you on the other side!