Thousand miles through northern Italy, a round trip from Brescia down to Rome and back up to Brescia again. Vintage cars, old towns and cities, curvy roads and a lot of history. That's Mille Miglia.

In a way I like cars. Cars are wonderful design objects telling a lot about the history and the paradigms of a certain period of time. On the other hand I don't exactly love cars like others do. To me cars are often noisy, too big and too fast for densely populated environments. But certainly I agree, cars are not only convenient, they are defining objects of our time. Still. So it's hard to not like cars.

During my last trip to northern Italy I was lucky enough to experience one destination of the famous vintage car race, the Mille Miglia. On that particular day those old cars were making their way through the old and very narrow streets of Lucca. Lucca is a wonderful town, not too far away from cities like Siena, Pisa or Florence. And certainly the historic inner city of Lucca is absolutely not made for cars. That's were you can best experience how cities made for cars and cities made for people differ. It's mostly a question of space. And in Lucca space is rare.

1/100 s, f/8, ISO 400, 92 mm, Lumix DMC-GX8

So here, right within the heart of this marvel of a cozy medieval city, hundreds of beautifully polished, colorful, wonderfully crafted, aesthetically shaped classic cars were showing up. Neatly lined up one after the other they were trying to mimic a car race within these old walls. The sound of their old engines was almost comically loud and was capturing the otherwise very intimate atmosphere of the city for these few hours of the race.

1/160 s, f/8, ISO 200, 64 mm, Lumix DMC-GX8

The Mille Miglia was established as an open road motorsport endurance race back in 1927. Almost every year a new course through the most beautiful towns of northern Italy was planned and set up. The round trip always started in Brescia in the early mornings, was heading to Rome and on a different route back to Brescia. The slower cars were starting first, the faster ones last. The race time took about 20 hours. In 1927, the first year of the race, the average speed on the track was about 78 km/h. In 1940 the team of Fritz Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Bäumer managed to set an all time speed record of 166 km/h on average, but on a significantly shorter track.

1/320 s, f/8, ISO 320, 250 mm, Lumix DMC-GX8

1957 was the last year of the old Mille Miglia. Many accidents, both among participants and spectators, and a public uproar made it impossible to continue the race in its original form. In total 56 fatalities happened during these years.

But the Mille Miglia was not dead. In 1977 it was reborn as Mille Miglia Storica, now as a race for classic and vintage cars. The focus shifted from winning to participating. The event no longer had the character of a race, but was more like a comfortable city rally in vintage cars through vintage environments. The 2024 round trip starting in Brescia was driven anti clock wise and led to cities like Bergamo, Turin, Genova, Lucca, Grosseto to Rome and back up to Siena, Bologna, Sirmione, Salo and Brescia again. The event took place on five consecutive days from the 11th - 15th of June 2024.

1/320 s, f/8, ISO 320, 280 mm, Lumix DMC-GX8

So what I experienced in Lucca was more like an exhibition of classic cars. Like in an immersive museum, but the museum was out in the streets and the exhibited objects were actually moving themselves. Did I mention the roaring sound?

As fleeting as my impressions were, as captivating, funny, and cool they seem to be in hindsight. Indeed this whole event felt a bit like an episode right out of a time capsule. It was not just the classic cars back from the beginnings of the automobile era but also the whole environment of this old city. As tiny and sporty as many of these old cars were, as huge did they still seem within those narrow, cobblestone streets. That made me realize how much space we actually have given up, how much space is now lost to wide SUVs, streets, multiple car lanes, sidewalks, parking lots and transportation. We've become a restless, always moving society. Moving to stand still seems to be our paradox. Maybe it's time to readjust. This road we're on leads to just more gray and brutal asphalt. Have you ever experienced a regular day on a regular multilane street in Dubai? 50 degrees celsius in the shade? Outside of your comfortably air conditioned car? That's our very current antithesis to cities like Lucca.