Mille Miglia - Scrutineering
The Mille Miglia 2001 started with the scrutineering of the cars in the Piazza della
Vittoria all day on Thursday 17 May, with the best possible light shed on the biggest
mobile museum exhibition – sunshine !
You have to wake up early if you want to have some undisturbed moments admiring all
of these exciting cars because from 9:00 a.m. on, the Piazza della Vittoria is so full of
people that you often can’t separate the cars from the crowd. It seems as if the number
of spectators grows from year-to-year.
While the scrutineering was going on, one could also visit an exceptional model car
exhibition of all Mille Miglia winning cars and tons of old Mille Miglia photos in the
catacombs of Hotel Vittoria. Of course, you could also stop in at the Mille Miglia store
and browse through the accessories such as T-shirts, books etc.
It seems that almost every year it has rained cats and dogs at the start, and this year
was no exception. As the first Mille Miglia participants drove down the start ramp in the
Viale Venezia in Brescia, a kind of monsoon storm rolled in during the evening and
was responsible for the most appalling conditions I have ever seen for the starting
ceremony. Looking at some of the participants’ faces, you could easily see that they
were questioning if it was such a good idea to be there…
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