Dark clouds begin to gather in my mind every spring as I park my car in Brescia and walk to scrutineering for the Mille Miglia Storica, to enjoy some of the most magnificent road racing cars in the world. All 375 of them are ready to set out on yet another gentlemanly drive through half of Italy in an event that commemorates the annual hell-for-leather charge to Rome and back from 1927 to 1957. The race’s tragic 1957 swansong is…

The Lancia Appia Zagato GTS of Enrico Anselmi (G.P. Nuvolari class winner) departs at Brescia.
Photo: Giorgio Nada