A man following his satellite navigator to a school reunion ended up stuck on a series of steps in a housing estate.

The man, a surgeon living in Udine, inserted the address of the restaurant where his old schoolmates were celebrating the 40th anniversary of their high-school graduation in Trieste.

He was OK until he got to the gloomy housing project where he turned right as instructed and ended up juddering down two flights of steps, damaging his car.

Police called to the scene pointed out that he only had one flight to go but the surgeon opted to call a special tow truck to get him back on the road.

Despite the time needed to haul his car back up, about 90 minutes, he still got to the reunion party on time.