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Mille Miglia | The Most Beautiful Race in the World
Words Alessandro Marrone / Photos Alessio Becker
How many times do we use famous words left to us by Enzo Ferrari to describe a car, a place or an event in the most effective way? Are we running out of ideas, or is it all due to the fact that the Commendatore was able to perceive those things differently from anyone else and find the right succession of words that would have made the idea clear to everyone, enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike. The Mille Miglia for example, defined as “the most beautiful race in the world”. And how would you ever want to describe it? Few, simple and concise words that tell thousands of things of the event that for years has been revived as a re-enactment and attracts enthusiasts from every corner of the globe, along a 1,600 km itinerary (a thousand miles, in fact) that introduces new features at each edition, precisely like this year as we saw the Freccia Rossa back in Turin and pass through towns and cities never crossed before.
The Mille Miglia, a famous competition held between 1927 and 1957, was – as you all know – interrupted due to a tragic accident that took the lives of 11 people. Back in 1977 as a revival, it immediately took on a unique connotation, romantic I would say, leading the participating crews to discover a portion of Italy capable of captivating after a few hours spent behind the wheel. The spirit is that of a competition – albeit a regularity one – and this year there were as many as 400 cars. As usual, to surround the main event we had the category reserved for electric models, the Ferrari Tribute and all that caravan of friends, support cars and the likes that makes the Mille Miglia a moment in which cities stop in admiration, seeing vintage racers, but also modern ones, one-offs and any other car capable of making those adults who lived through the golden years of the great race feel like children again. Those years in which there were only a handful of roads covered in tarmac and in which drivers raced against time, opponents and death itself. It was a very dangerous sport, doomed to have its days numbered, but precisely for this reason capable of making everyone feel alive and part of a common dream, that of driving fast from Brescia to Rome and back.
So I decided that this year I would leave the honor – and burden – of living the experience to the full to my colleagues, in order to enjoy the Mille Miglia like one of those thousands of enthusiasts who wake up early in the morning, head to strategic spots and watch the speeding cars whiz by. No deadlines, no photos – except just a couple – but only the desire to hear those engines, breathe those smells and devour with my eyes the silhouettes of cars that take us back to an era in which motorsport was not politics, but only adrenaline.
I reach an area that I know very well – and which we often use as a testing ground – and the day begins with a caravan of splendid contemporary Ferraris. Just a few minutes and the first classics arrive. These are pioneers and experience in every possible way the quintessence of the great race. At a certain point you lose count and between Siata, Osca, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, Aston Martin – in short everything – you continue to let your pupils follow those beauties of metal and noise. Some say hi, you even know some others and rediscover the beauty of having your hands free and your eyes away from a screen. Only in this way – feeling it for yourself – you can experience pure passion, like Enzo Ferrari used to say.
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