The Mille Miglia is about to begin: a dream on four wheels
I don’t even have a driving licence; yet I gave the starting signal for the Mille Miglia – who would have thought it? The most beautiful race in the world, as they like to say – and rightly so – set off yesterday from Brescia. In car number 1000, designated to lead the way, first our colleague Giuseppe Lupo from Brescia, and then myself, from Lumezzane, driven by an exceptional driver and collector like Pietro Tenconi, we had the honour of starting the race. From Brescia to Padua, with stops in Lumezzane, spectacular drives along Lake Garda, a visit to the Beretta factory, Soave and Vicenza, and then straight on to Padua, where we arrived during the night: there were over 400 cars in the convoy, featuring vehicles of incredible beauty and value, crews from all over the world, enthusiasts and newcomers alike, from the Netherlands (many of them) and Argentina, from Germany, Japan and Ireland.
The 2026 route will follow the striking ‘figure-of-eight’ layout, a course that will put the cars and crews through their paces in a challenging race. After Padua, the route heads towards other iconic stages: the passage through Abetone and Montecatini Terme, then on to Tuscany, followed by the sprint finish towards Rome, with the parade along Via Veneto. The route then heads back up to Assisi (a tribute to St Francis), then on to Rimini, and finishes, of course, in Brescia.
The Mille Miglia, however, is not about the cars, nor is it about speed, nor is it even about the beauty of an incredible design that has faded into the past. The parade of cars is accompanied through the villages by thousands of people, waving little red-arrowed flags frantically. As soon as we pass by, in car number 1000, everyone looks at us with a smile on their face, children and grandparents alike. Families by the roadside, in the beautiful Veronese countryside, having lunch and getting ready to watch the cars, everyone happy. It appeals to an almost primal instinct: cars are a dream on four wheels; the public’s enthusiasm is moving. They see in us (and in every car) pioneers and madmen, lovers of beauty and courage: the cars are sometimes without windows, braving the wind with bare hands; discomfort is the order of the day; if it rains, you get wet and just have to tough it out. Unlike Tenconi, who is a veteran with a thousand anecdotes and adventures, I’ve never actually seen one of these cars up close, believe it or not.
The Mille Miglia is an epic on the move, fuelled by people’s childlike wonder and a bond that has remained unbroken for a century (next year marks a milestone anniversary). Here comes the immediate applause, the encouragement, the anticipation rewarded by a long line of cars stretching on for hours.
The heat is stifling and everyone is tired by the time we reach the lunch stops and then the final one for dinner: we make friends with the drivers, exchange opinions and views, technical or otherwise; it is a popular festival, primarily involving the collectors who drive these vintage racing cars.
