Mille Miglia and Ferrari Tribute, my impressions.

This year the Mille Miglia split the final leg into two parts, apparently to keep it from being such a long a slog. On Sunday morning I joined up with the 4th tappa to watch and take some photographs. After a pleasant 2 1/2 hour drive from my home, I stopped my 360 Modena in an empty industrial parking lot and waited. Soon I heard a Ferrari and in a few seconds a 599 roared by. Others quickly followed and after taking only a few snapshots I decided to join the fun.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes had an official "tribute" event this year. The idea is that you can (if you have an extra twelve thousand U.S. Dollars or so rattling around in your pocket) drive the same route as the real Mille Miglia tribute; sort of a tribute to a tribute if you will. For that price you get a cup of coffee before the start, a few hours sleep in three hotels located as much as 130 km from where the race cars stop for the night, three light diners and not a whole lot else as far as I can tell. The tribute cars travel the route just ahead of the "real" cars. I must say, the Ferrari tribute participants were making the most of the event by driving public roads in a rather ............ um ............. spirited way. I couldn't resist following.

I'm not sure, but it appeared to me that the rather steep (in my opinion) Tribute entry fee must include some kind of special dispensation from the Pope guaranteeing that you won't die, at least during the four days of the event. These Ferrari guys were really getting their money's worth and when things got too crazy for me, I dropped back. Of course, police and Carabinieri were everywhere, but they were having as much fun as we were. I just hope they remembered to turn off the speed cameras for the day. I'm not looking forward to another of those pesky registered letters.

After poking along with the regular traffic for a while, another Ferrari group would pass me and I immediately began tagging along again until it got too ........ uh ........ spirited. This happened a few times. Then l I reminded myself that I wasn't ready for the kind of fame associated with Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago, best known as Alfonso de Portago, the Milla Miglia entrant who (in the 1957 Mille Miglia) lost control of his car and killed four adults and five kids not far from where we were at the time. I came to my senses and stopped to make more photographs.

Next came the Mercedes tribute group who, it seemed to me, were not properly protected against death by the Pope and were just out for a nice Sunday drive; at least that's what it looked like. Unless those "light dinners" at midnight were really delicious, I didn't see where they were getting very good value-for-money, but perhaps I'm just a cheap skin flint.

Eventually the classic cars started passing by. Each one was a masterpiece in its own right. Unlike the Ferrari gang, these guys were going by at a stately pace. I'm not sure if that's because most of the leg was a regularly run or if it was in deference to the age of the machinery, but I didn't notice anyone thrashing their cars (other than the Ferrari drivers of course). The variety was fantastic. Some of these cars are gigantic snorting monsters, some appear so ordinary that you feel like saying, "That's a race car?!!), and a couple of them look like they were stolen from a kids carnival ride as some kind of a joke. It was truly amazing to watch. The weather was perfect and fans were lining the course just like back in the day.

I hop-scotched along the route stopping in several places to take more photographs. Of course, the official entrants all had stickers and numbers, but just driving a Ferrari was enough for me to get waved along by the police and race staff as though I was some sort of VIP. I'm sure the start and finish lines are restricted, but I was able to stay on the route as long as I wished. People along the side of the road were even cheering me, taking my photograph, and hollering for me to give them a taste of Ferrari performance. I did my best to oblige. Italians really do have a love affair with Ferrari. I was laughing. What a fantastic country to drive a Ferrari!

As we got closer to the finish in Brescia, the traffic got worse, the crowds grew larger, and I decided to bail out and head for home. I had experienced plenty of fun, taken advantage of the opportunity to drive like a maniac without danger of being arrested, gotten the snapshots I wanted, and enjoyed a nice cruise in my Ferrari; all for the price of a tank of gas. La dolce vita.

If you want to see more photos, click on my flickr account at https://www.flickr.com/photos/68227080@N04/sets/72157644333907618/
The image name should be the car type; I hope I got them all correct. If you wish, you can click on one photo to see a larger version, hunt around for the little arrow, and then start a slide show.
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Nope.............. my linguistic background is strictly American although I have visited England many times where I've picked up a few English phrases such as "lumpy tick-over" and I admit to eating spotted dick.