Mille Miglia 2011 Preview

384 classic cars, 130 Ferraris, and 1000 miles from Brescia to Rome and back. Welcome to the 86th annual Mille Miglia, la corsa piu bella del mondo.

It's fitting that the worlds most beautiful race should take place in il bel paese - though I still don't get why it had to rain on them for 80 years straight before they figured out that May is a better month than April to host it, particularly when nearly half of the official race cars lack a roof and/or windshield. Sigh...such is life in Italy.

In any case, sometime in the middle of the night the boys arrived in Brescia: my husband and the X-men (Marnix and Xander). We were all moving pretty slowly the next morning and it took a little extra expresso to get us moving.

Eventually we worked our way to the city center where all 500 cars were gathered in the squares and all along the cobblestone streets. It's a connoisseur's wet dream.

We always start with the Ferrari's.

Then, onto the old timers. 

The official race cars are all antiques 1927-1957,

the years when the Mile Miglia was still an official speed race.

 I adore the Bugattis.

#22 - 1928 Bugatti Type 37A

#28 - 1926 Bugatti, Type 35T

But I'll always be a Porsche girl...

#215 - 1955 Porsche 356 1500 Speedster

#209 - 1954 Porsche 356 1500 Speedster

#299 - 1995 Porsche 550RS

Oh, who am I kidding?

I love 'em all.

#94 - 1937 BMW 328

#41 - 1934 Fiat Balilla 508S

#320 - 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial

#97 - 1949 HWM Alta

Of course, no trip to Brescia would be complete without an Aperol spritz so we stopped for a lunch of pirlos, panini and people-watching.

On the way back to the cars we stopped at the Mercedes station.

It's been an amazing 125 years between this...

and this...

On the way back to our cars, we cheered on a few driving teams. I can't even begin to imagine spending 3 days and 1000 miles in these cramped quarters, sans a roof - or even a windshield.

#119 - 1949 Healey Silverstone, Christian Roncolato & Sabine Rinnerberger

#176 - 1952 Aston Martin DB# Team Car, Martin Melling & Tim Moore

As always, a beautiful table was waiting for us when we got home for dinner.

After dinner, we were off to the races...