A Celebration Of The Unexpected
MILLE MIGLIA 2022
20 June 2022 • Written By Virgiliu Andone
It’s the world’s most beautiful race. Like anything that sends butterflies flying through your stomach, it’s also a bit dangerous. A bit raw. A bit bigger than life. It’s that one time in the year that matters more to the Alfisti community than any other. The home race. A thousand miles of intense adrenaline, strong as an Italian espresso and hitting you with the same force, for every breath of air you take while immersed in it. A grand display of racecraft, endurance and style. And, beyond that, once the competitors‘ fog of war settles, lies the most surprising secret of them all. It may be the reason this race endures over the decades, the explanation behind its unwithering appeal, the key to its perennial reinvention.
Mille Miglia has everything you could expect from a classic car race held in Italy. Stunning scenery, characterful cars, beautiful to the last nut and bolt, passionate drivers, fervent fans and a cult following. It starts in the historic centre of Brescia, in the shadow of the spectacular architecture lining the road of the city. It then winds down all the way to the Eternal City, only to swing back North again to complete a full loop. Cars charge through the wide fields of the Padan plane, get a taste off the great Alpine lakes, bask in the sunset on the shores of the Adriatic sea, shoot up and down the Apennines, filling the air with the roar of the engines in countless towns and villages up and down the country. All of that, and it’s already a lot, is to be expected. After all, Italy’s reputation for being a sanctuary for scenic beauty is well deserved. And yet, there is so much more to this race.
Other cultures worship order, peace of mind and what they view as a delightful routine, but Italy has a cult for the spontaneous. It’s the beauty in a simple gesture. It’s the crack of a cornetto. It’s the conversation from one balcony to the other, wrongly described as screaming out loud by the uninitiated. It’s the pleasure of speaking your mind and following your heart whenever you feel their calling. While such things can be viewed as terrifying in other societies, they are the very fabric of life in the Bel Paese. The unexpected is not the king, but the omnipresent and yet secret god of Italy. It’s everywhere and people define themselves by how they react when they encounter it.
You expect the glamour. You don’t expect the intensity. It’s the most beautiful race in the world. A race to find the most beauty in the completely unexpected.
