If you are from Brescia, you can not help but know the thousand miles, I have been going there since I was a kid and it is really a very suggestive event, for car enthusiasts and above all vintage cars it is the most awaited event of the year. . The mille Miglia is not just a race, but a historical re-enactment event because most of the pilots enter the character and dress up in the clothes of the time, leather gloves, aluminum helmets that feel like aviation helmets, vintage racing glasses, but it does not end here because not only they go back in time but also the inhabitants of the city where the thousand passes in fact many people, even if they do not participate, leave their garages with their cars or their vintage motorcycles and turn along the stages of the route to relive and cheer for the most beautiful race in Italy.
The Mille Miglia was born here in Brescia in 1927, a place that has always been the start and finish of the Mille Miglia, which is not just a race but an experience to experience Italy in all its beauty on 4 wheels.
Giovanni Canestrini, Franco Mazzotti, Aymo Maggi and Renzo Castagneto are the 4 friends who conceived in 1926 to be able to invent what is today the most beautiful race in the world. The greatest credit goes to Renzo Castagneto who as director of the Brescia automobile club manages to weave relationships with car manufacturers and drivers from all over the world and to extend the organization of a 1600km long route and if it seems easy to you, think that these individuals did not have smartphones, text messages, emails and calls in their pocket.
Initially the race It was born as a speed competition and in the first edition the Lambda of the Lancia team followed by the O.M. 665 Superba by Nando Minoja and Giuseppe Morandi. They are the ones who triumph, crossing the finish line in viale Venezia in 21 hours, 4 minutes and 48 seconds with an average of 77.238 km / h.
Behind this race is the will to demonstrate that technological advancement was bringing better and safer vehicles:
"One of the aims of the Mille Miglia is to demonstrate that, with the cars normally on sale, it is possible to travel on the roads existing in our country, at high averages, with a certain safety and regularity ... Our task is therefore to give the competition a technical social function and, why not, a tourist one. "
Giovanni Canestrini, 1927
Over the years, the realization of the race has become bigger and more articulated and the number of participants increases, the race turns into a Regularity race, so the participants must now be able to reach two points at a predetermined time which it complicates the race more because it is not enough to go fast you have to go at the most suitable speed to arrive on time.
Each year the race changes its route but 3 stages will never change Brescia-Rome-Brescia. Allow me to report from the site the wonderful path chosen this year.
The details of the 1000 Miglia 2022 taken from the official website:
Stage 1 - Wednesday 15 June
After the departure from Brescia the cars will head towards Lake Garda, first Salò then Desenzano del Garda and Sirmione from where they will parade through the Sigurtà Garden Park, Mantua and Ferrara and reach Cervia-Milano Marittima for the end of the first day.
Stage 2 - Thursday 16 June
From the locality on the coast at the end of stage 1, the route includes a detour to Forlì, the ascent to San Marino, the descent inland to Passignano sul Trasimeno, the passage to Norcia to conclude the stage with the Roman footbridge of Via Veneto. .
Stage 3 - Friday 17th June
The longest stage of the race, after the departure from Rome, will see the cars go up towards Ronciglione, then Siena from where, via Pontedera and Cascina, they will travel towards Viareggio and reach Parma and decree closed the third day.
Stage 4 - Saturday 18 June
The last day will immediately engage the cars with a series of tests in the Varano de 'Melegari circuit, to then pass through Salsomaggiore Terme, Stradella, Pavia to reach the Monza racetrack where, in collaboration with MIMO Milano Monza Motor Show, the crews will test their ability with stopwatches and pressure switches on the track that celebrates the centenary of the Formula 1 GP.
Before reaching the Brescia finish line, the competing cars will greet Bergamo in a symbolic anticipation of the twinning that in 2023 will see the two cities united in the Brescia-Bergamo Capital of Culture project.
For the first time this year I brought Amelie my niece, she is not yet a year old but she is already a great lover of brum brum as she calls them, I am really excited about how the race went, how it has come back to life again these moments of serenity after the covid and to share them with the people you love, surely next year on the occasion of Brescia and Bergamo, capital of culture there will be an even more beautiful event and the child will be older and will have much more fun!
I invite you to go to the official website and to the instagram page to find all the information and the best photos of the event, not like mine:
https://1000miglia.it/
https://www.instagram.com/millemigliaofficial/