Paduans love their upscale cars! Especially on the weekends, the luxury and super-modern sports cars come out of their protective garage and hit the cobblestone streets of medieval Padua.
I remember gawking at them the first few months living here. I have lived in several big cities which are known for their wealth in the past but the frequency of passing these elite cars was not the same. Considering that only about 250,000 people live in this city and its suburbs, the per capita tally of how many luxury cars which can be spotted in town is surprisingly high. Paduans' business savvy, as part of the "Northeast miracle" which transfers into small or large family fortunes, seems to be directly poured into car sales.
Porsche's Boxster and Cayenne are almost as popular as the Toyota's Camry and Ford's F-150 in the USA. Padua is crawling with them! The situation verges on indecent.
Infiniti is the latest car company to hope to take a piece of the luxury car pie. It opened on Corso Stati Uniti in the industrial area a couple of months ago. Infiniti now joins the ranks of not only the old-faithful names such as Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, Porsche and Jaguar but also dealerships including Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Maserati. Padua is the smallest city to open an Infiniti showroom in Italy after Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna. The company is probably targeting the entire Veneto region since Padua is fairly central. I am curious how there sales will fare during the supposed crisis. But like many say, the truly rich stay rich, even during a crisis.
So the next time you want to drive around town here, be aware that your jalopy will stick out like a sore thumb amist a sea of luxury cars.
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