Castello Banfi, acclaimed all over the world for its Brunello di Montalcino, will receive a group of attendees at the historical car race Mille Miglia on Saturday, May 14th.
The visit to Castello Banfi is part of the customized program organized for some associates of National and International press. The vintage cars will arrive at Castello Banfi at 12.30 pm for a welcome drink at the Enoteca after that they will move to the winery for a guided tour of the facilities which will be followed by the lunch at the Taverna Castello Banfi.
The myth of Mille Miglia was born at the end of 1926, from the idea of four young guys who loved cars and races: the Count Aymo Maggi, Count Franco Mazzotti, Renzo Castagneto and the journalist of the “Gazzetta dello Sport” Giovanni Canestrini. The race began as a response to the failure to allocate in Brescia, their hometown, the Grand Prix of Italy. They choose a path in the shape of "eight", which starting from Brescia arrived to Rome and went back to Brescia, for a total distance of about 1,600 km (about a thousand miles, from which the name). The first edition kicked off on March 26th, 1927, and collected such a success that they decided to repeat the competition the following years. After a first interruption of the event in 1939 caused by a serious accident happened during the race, it was interrupted again in 1940 due to the involvement of Italy in the Second World War. The Mille Miglia took off in 1947, but in 1957 a new tragedy marked the definitive history of the Mille Miglia and the Italian government decreed the end of the Mille Miglia itself and of all the competitions on the open road. The organizers had to give up with Mille Miglia and they were forced to turn it in a regularity race with some free speed courses. While retaining the name and the same distance, the three Mille Miglia played in the 1958, 1959 and 1961 were held in a completely different way from the previous editions.
In 1977, for the 50th anniversary and on the growing interest of collectors for vintage cars, was organized a commemoration of the race from Brescia to Rome and return, reserved to historic cars with a final ranking based on the results of the precision tests placed along the route. But only in 1982 debuted the new "era" of the Mille Miglia that goes on biennial until 1986. In 1987 it was decided for an annual periodicity due to the huge number of registrations.
Today's event aims to enhance the competition in different forms, any longer limited only to pure performances, but it combines the leisure with the tourism, in accordance with an event devoted to vintage cars, less competitive and more difficult to drive.