Cars go on display throughout Italy

With more than 1500 museums and art galleries holding almost half of the world’s greatest art and culture heritage, Italy is home to the finest museums in the world, from Florence’s Uffizi to the Vatican Museums in Rome. What may be less well known – except among car enthusiasts – is that Italy is also the home of many of the world’s greatest automotive museums and this northern summer they and many of their non-motoring counterparts are joining forces to celebrate 110 years of Italy producing the most stylish and acclaimed cars in the world.

Until October 31 not only will there be co-ordinated displays across Italy, some private Museums will be open to the public – including the largest collection of Maseratis in the world – and there will be special prices for visits to more than one of the participating museums.

Under the banner of “L’Automobile Italiana” (The Italian Automobile), the nationwide series of exhibitions will attract car lovers from around the world and will run throughout the northern summer.

Italian cars are international symbols of style, class, elegance, technology and performance, and 'L’Automobile Italiana' brings together the great iconic Italian marques as part of a voyage of discovery of the most exclusive products of Italian ingenuity between 1899, the year in which Fiat was founded, and the present day.

The exhibition illustrates the extent to which the automobile has changed our way of life and customs at various turning points in history, and the influence of creative thought and the economy on the evolution of the cars themselves. It holds a mirror up to an entire era, revealing the advertisements, the aspirations, the sense of freedom and escape, and scientific application involved. This is the story of an entire century told by looking at the car, which probably more than anything else has characterised its direction and fuelled the dreams of every strata of society.

In its role as official Ferrari museum and home to Maranello’s permanent single-seater and GT collections, the Galleria Ferrari has for the occasion decided to pay special homage to such technological masterpieces as the 1907 FIAT 130 HP, the 1954 Lancia Aurelia B 24, the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B and the 1948 Maserati A6 1500 as well staging the “110 Years of the World’s Most Beautiful Cars” exhibition of photography with original film clips produced by the various marques.

The Galleria Ferrari is taking part in the exhibition in collaboration with other prestige collections which include: the Museo dell’Automobile di Torino at the Turin Esposizioni centre, the Collezione Umberto Panini at Corlo di Formigine (just a few kilometres outside Modena), the Museo Nicolis dell’Auto, della Tecnica, della Meccanica at Villafranca near Verona, and the Centro Storico Fiat, home to the designs and actual vehicles (destined for air, sea and land) produced by the renowned multi-faceted Italian company over the years. Other museums across Italy will include special “L’Automobile Italiana” presentations within their normal displays.
Until October 31, visitors will enjoy reduced entry fees at the other museums involved in the exhibition when they produce the ticket purchased at the first one they visit. Most importantly of all, they will be able to book very special visits to two private collections: the Collezione Umberto Panini, which houses one of the most complete collections of Maseratis in the world, and the Centro Storico Fiat, which opened in 1963 and is based in the first extension made to the workshops on Corso Dante in Turin, where Fiat began life.

-Edward Rowe