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Italian Pensioner Drives From Newcastle To Rom In Germany, Instead Of Rome

Italian Pensioner Drives From Newcastle To Rom In Germany, Instead Of Rome

His car ended up hitting the town sign for Rom

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

Taking the wrong turn when you're driving is easily done - but aside from missing a few turns on the M62, I've managed to never end up in the wrong country.

But the same can't be said for a pensioner who drove from his home in Newcastle - to a village in Germany called Rom, instead of Rome.

However, Luigi Rimonti, 81, blames petrol station staff for misdirecting his sat nav. Last week, he drove 680 miles to the rural German village after he says he pulled over at a petrol station near Dusseldorf when his sat nav stopped working.

Rimonti, who doesn't like flying says he has driven to Italy from England many times, but the staff member typed in the name wrong.

The retired hairdresser has lived in Newcastle since 1965 and said he was making a pilgrimage to the Vatican to see the Pope.

He said: "I asked the staff at the petrol station to set the navigation correctly."

Seemingly though, the sat nav failed to recognise Rome as the Italian capital and instead pointed him towards a small rural community called Rom in the western German state of North Rhine Westphalia.

CEN

Rimonti said: "It told me I had to come off the motorway, but everything became more rural. Then my sat nav said 'destination reached'. I thought 'mamma mia, where am I?'."

The OAP then got out of his Jaguar to try to investigate where he was and his car started to roll down a hill because he had forgotten to put the handbrake on.

He then tried to stop the car but was hit by an open door and suffered cuts and bruising to his right leg and minor injuries to his head.

In what could be the weirdest example of irony ever, Rimonti's Jaguar ended up knocking down the actual road sign for Rom, which meant the police were called to investigate.

After he was released from hospital on Monday, Rimonti went to a hotel in Waldbroel where he is currently staying.

Rimonti said: "My son wants to pick me up, but that will take three or four days."

He also said he's not interested in going to Rome anymore, adding: "I have had enough of it. No more Rome, I just want to go home."

Featured Image Credit: CEN

Topics: UK News, Funny