Today brought a dawn start for the Ferrari Tribute to Mille Miglia with the cars leaving Rome where they arrived yesterday at the end of a 485-kilometre stage.
The Prancing Horse fleet finally drove into the capital city in the evening having come all the way from Riccione. In the course of the day, they followed a spectacular route across the Apennines that took in Senigallia and Macerata, and then stopped off at Ascoli Piceno, before going on to Teramo, Rieti and, lastly, Rome and the timeless beauty of the Castel Sant’Angelo.
Today is the longest stage in the Tribute: a 603-kilometre dash through three regions: Lazio, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna. The route spans a host of marvellous locations not least Viterbo, Radicofani, Buonconvento, Siena, Pisa and Lucca. The cars will even parade through Maranello, Ferrari’s hometown, before going on to the finish-line in Parma. The final Parma-Brescia stage comes tomorrow with another stop-off at that legendary temple of speed, the Monza Circuit.
This year’s Tribute to what Enzo Ferrari himself liked to describe as “the most beautiful race in the world” features 60 crews in a range of Ferraris spanning the spectrum from the very latest models to those built in the second half of the 1950s. All will be tackling the traditional 1,600-kilometre to Rome and back, which takes in some of Italy’s most scenic roads, before crossing the finish-line in Brescia on Sunday morning next.
The Ferrari event, which retraces the route of the historic endurance race, began officially at Desenzano on Lake Garda yesterday morning, and took in a string of charming towns and marvellously historic cities en route to the finish-line at Riccione, including Sirmione, Verona, Ferrara, Ravenna and San Marino. All of the latter locations, of course, were united by the passion of the many delighted enthusiasts cheering on the Ferraris past and present as they passed by, including fine examples of the 365 GTB, the Enzo, the California T and LaFerrari.
