Mille Miglia Italy

On the next leg of our adventures we took Flat Susan to the Mille Miglia in Brescia, Italy. We stopped a couple of nights in Potenghe on Lake Garda. 

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The Mille Miglia, or thousand miles, was an endurance race that was organized 24 times between 1927 and 1957. Participants raced with their Gran Turismo cars over the open roads of northern Italy from Brescia to Rome and back on an 8-shaped route. Due to frequent fatal crashes the race was banned in 1957, but since 1982 it was revived as a touring trip for old-timers.

http://www.losapos.com/mille_miglia

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Before the race starts, the ancient streets are lined with almost 400 vintage cars dating from 1921 to 1957 and for car enthusiasts, like our fellas, it was a sweetie shop. I must admit it was fascinating to Dolores and me and took me back to childhood days when Stirling Moss was racing. We even spotted a couple of cars he had raced during his career. 

Here's a selection of my favourite cars from more than 50 I managed to photograph.

Bugatti 37, 1926

FORD A Roadster Deluxe, 1931

Sales of umbrellas soared that day and Italian style went out of the window when we ended up resorting to buying silly plastic ponchos and big brollies in an effort to beat the weather.
The rest of the weather for our holiday was perfect, comfortably hot and sunny!

Alan, Dolores and Dave with a

Lagonda M 4.5 Rapide, 1934

Almost had a catastrophe after fastening Flat Susan to my camera strap whilst looking an utter drip (pun intended) in my poncho, PANIC, PANIC, how would I tell Neet that we lost her???.....

but after a search, utter relief when we found her half drowned in a puddle on a marble slab,

I'm relieved to say that she made a good recovery and we all dried out after lunch in a great little cafe nearby....

Flat Susan certainly helps to make friends as people are so fascinated by her and the story of her travels around the world. The cafe owner (below) was so friendly and asked about her smallest ever customer!

Ciao!

Mercedes-Benz SSK 1929

The rain poured and the wind blew turning so many brollies inside out

that every bin was stuffed full of dead umbrellas .

Lots of famous people entered the race... Sir Chris Hoy, Daniel Day Lewis, David Coulthard etc., and here's Yasmin Le Bon co-driving a

Jaguar XK120 OTS, 1950

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Sport, 1929

Bentley 4 1/2 Litre Supercharged 1930   

Rally ABC 1929

I loved the flying Hippo on this..

Lagonda M 4.5 Rapide 1934

Lancia Lambda serie V11, 1927

All of the shop windows had themed displays and I would have loved to bring this one home for a special little boy!

There were so many photos of old racing stars in the shop windows, but I just had to snap this fabulous one of my childhood hero, Stirling Moss.

Arrivederci Brescia!