The passion for Alfa knows no borders. That’s why we’re very pleased to have Thomas as our latest guest. He's from France and is known on his blog as Orazur. Thomas was invited to spend a whole day with Alfa to get a close look at the work that's gone into making the Alfa Mi.To an extremely safe car.

Thomas met Stefano Sardi, Alfa's Head of Vehicle Integration, who showed him all the equipment that makes the Alfa Mi.To a class leader when it comes to safety.

The Mi.To has been designed to be one of the safest cars in Europe, and its safety features have also been 'future proofed'. At the end of 2008 the current Euro NCAP crash test ratings – which certify car safety - are changing, and the Mi.To has been designed to score as highly as possible under the new system.

Making a car safe is a complex task, especially if it’s done to get top results: all the safety components have to be optimized and tuned in to each other, and in the Mi.To’s case there are a lot of them!

The newst Alfa comes with no less than seven airbags as standard, a double pre-tensioner on the front seatbelts, an anti-whiplash device on the seats, a collapsible steering wheel in case of head-on collisions, and SBR (Seat Belt Reminder) technology.

This last feature is a new item that perfectly matches the Alfa philosophy of giving maximum control to the driver. Five sensors on a small screen on the windscreen detect whether all the passenger belts - both front and rear - are fastened. The system is extremely rigorous and sends out an acoustic signal should any of the passengers not have fastened their belt.

The Alfa Mi.To promises maximum safety both for passengers and for pedestrians. This result has been achieved by designing the bumpers so they can pass rigorous tests and also by optimizing the exterior components in order to avoid any possible injury to pedestrians’ legs.

Check out the video diary of Thomas' visit to Alfa below, and read his own summary of his experience after the jump:

The Mi.To's 1.4 turbo has been described as a 'real' Alfa engine. Read on to find out why...

Children don't always like what their parents like. Whether it's music, clothes or places to hang out, young people love to be loud, dynamic and different. Very often 'Dad' is just another word for 'sad', 'embarrasing' or 'out of fashion'. For Mi.To Blog user Andrea however, his father Riccardo's influence gave him a passion for Alfa Romeo cars – nothing to be embarrassed about at all!

Their shared passion for the 'big snake' earned them the chance to come to Turin to get an in-depth look at the 'beating heart' of the Mi.To. Check out the video diary of their experience here:

We've been exploring the Mi.To's winter testing regime for the past few days, so to wrap up our Arctic adventure, here's a short video to illustrate just what goes in to making one of these winter test sessions happen...