The Mille Miglia rolled through town yesterday--classic car after classic car putting through Piazza Signoria. Even my son, who normally doesn't pay much attention to these things, got into it: shouting "not old" at the newer model "service" cars from BMW and Mercedes.
Now a two-day endurance road rally from Brescia to Rome and back, the Mille Miglia used to be an annual, 1,500 km, 20-hour race from 1927 to 1957. It inspired carmakers like
Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche to design GT or grand touring cars. It was disrupted only by World War II and cancelled in 1957 after a Ferrari blew a tire and killed nine spectators.
Today, the only cars allowed are cars that participated in the original races over those 30 years. We noticed plates from as far away as Japan and Canada. And Jack saw a suspicious number of modern Ferraris...
It reminded me a little of "The Great Race."
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