Sunrise on day three found Dave in the hotel car park, adjusting the Beemer's rear suspension with a lever bar and a large hammer. Repairs made, it was time to don our Stig costumes and head for Aprica town square for the S2N water pistol fight.

 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.