We will be waiting for you at Verona Airport until late morning and escort you to your chic hotel in Bardolino on Lake Garda. We will then present 'your' Alfa Romeos to you on an introductory route to the Valpolicella vineyards to get comfortable behind the wheel. In the traditional Campagnola winery, we visit the cellars and taste Amarone from their own production. In the evening, we enjoy a special dinner together in the olive garden.
Today your route goes north and runs on the legendary 'Gardesana'. This route opened in 1931 between Gargnano and Riva del Garda, a masterpiece of road construction even from today's perspective with its 70 tunnels and galleries, it was built in just three years and, thanks to the incomparable lake view, became the most visited of the time: the Dream roads of the 1950s! At the Vittoriale in Salò, you will experience Italian history on a guided tour before leisure time in one of the many 'trattoria' on the waterfront. Via Sirmione we will return to Bardolino, where we can recommend some lakeside restaurants downtown for the evening at leisure.
After breakfast and the road book briefing, you start via Torri del Benaco into the mountain hinterland of Lake Garda. The road book takes you on narrow, low-traffic country roads that wind like serpents up to the tree line. Alpine huts invite you to a coffee stop with a mountain panorama including grazing cows. Riva del Garda, the northernmost city on Lake Garda, is the ideal place for an individual lunch stop today. In the evening we will accompany you to a group dinner in a charming winery in Valpolicella in anticipation for the Mille Miglia to come.
Today the 'most beautiful race in the world' starts in Brescia. After check-out and breakfast, we will take you to downtown Brescia. Many pre-war cars are being lined up in Viale Venezia hours before the official start, others keep coming from the parc fermé. Grab a drink at one of the many espresso bars along the Viale and indulge in this all-Italian feeling. This is the perfect moment to get up-close and personal with the world's finest automobiles, and some of their owners and drivers. To the tunes of a military band playing the Italian anthem, Italy's air patrol 'Frecce Tricolori' paints green-white-red stripes into the sky above Viale Venezia, and off we go. It takes three exciting hours for the almost 400 teams to set off from the launch pad to the road and start a four-day-exhaustive journey across the Italian peninsula. Plenty of time for a chat between petrol heads, or gear heads, as they are referred to. After this exhilarating farewell, we will accompany you to Verona Airport, or back to the hotel for your individual departures.
* sharing a double room/ sharing a car
If you would like to book as an individual guest, just speak to us.
It is one-third smaller than Lake Constance, but still the largest lake in Italy and is the dream spot of many holidaymakers from up north for decades: Lake Garda or "Lago di Garda," as the locals call it. The 150 km long coastline is shared by three Italian regions, Lombardy in the west, Veneto in the east, and the region of Trentino-South Tyrol in the north. The year-round mild climate make this lake feel so predestine along the southern edge of the Alps as a holiday destination. Mild winters, hot summers and an annual average temperature of 15°C (~63°F) are also the reason why there are some very well-known wine-growing areas around the lake. To the east of the lake, known as the 'Riviera degli Olivi,' the Bardolino and Soave area, in the southeast towards Verona the Valpolicella, and in the south near Desenzano del Garda the Lugana are all many vast growing areas.
Lake Garda looks back on a long and eventful history, from the pile dwellings in the area of today's Torbole (now a World Heritage Site) to the Romans, who defended themselves against invaders from the north during the time of the Great Migration, to the Middle Ages, as the Lords of Verona who have built Scaligeri, castles in the eastern and south-eastern areas. The struggle for supremacy between the Doges of Venice and the Milanese Visconti, when the former had a series of galleys transported from the Adige Valley over the mountains and ultimately won the day, became legendary at the beginning of modern times. The French and Habsburgs later fought here, and the decisive battle of Solferino in 1859 near the south bank paved the way for the unification of Italy. It only became politically explosive shortly before the end of the Second World War, when the deposed fascist leader Mussolini founded the “Repubblica Sociale.” Now, since the 1950s, “conquerors” have been coming from abroad with much more peaceful intentions - as vacationers.
A large part of the visitors to Lake Garda come in July and August, the choice of the routes therefore makes it possible to slow down and relax behind the wheel of our vintage cars at the start of the “Mille Miglia” in June. Panoramic routes such as the “Gardesana” on the “Riviera dei Limoni” alternate with remote mountain routes around Monte Baldo, which are mainly for mountain bikers and climbers. Visits such as the “Vittoriale” in Salò or tastings round off the program, which comes to an end in neighboring Brescia with the start of the “most beautiful race in the world”, the “corsa più bella del mondo”.
Discover our detailed description of the Mille Miglia with notes on the history, background stories, participants, program highlights and much more. Mille Miglia – All you need to know
Not included in the tour price: meals unless expressly included, arrival in Verona
Balanstraße 73 / 81541 München
Office: +49 (0)89 5454060
Fax: +49 (0)89 5454066
E-mail: info@nostalgic.de
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