Mille Miglia Adventure: Race Day One: Thursday, May 12th

At the start- Game on!!

Rally Day One: Thursday, May 12^th

We drove up to a podium for our 5:44PM start time to thousands of cheering Italian car enthusiasts wishing us well. After they announced our names, country and car type, we launched toward Sirmione for our first stamp and first time trial. Next we hit back roads, where we promptly learned how fast the other Ferrari drivers hit the streets- this was no tour of the country side, it was a street race! Hitting the winding country roads at 90MPH in the straights, brake hard, downshift, hit the apex, foot to the floor and repeat. If you didn’t there was a line of impatient Ferrari’s on your rear bumper impatiently waiting to pass. I must admit it was a bit unnerving at first, but we quickly got the hang of it. Our first major city was beautiful Verona, it was spectacular! The city rampart walls and ancient castles lit up and crowds lined our route through the city. We drove inside a castle and up a podium where we were again announced and greeted by young women dressed in renaissance costumes. I must admit it was pretty cool! Final leg of the day was to Bologna and for a rare stretch on the Autostrata where we hit close to 150MPH. We made it to our time control at 1:00am for a 7am start.