Italian Style: 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Tour De France

During a recent visit to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, my personal star of the show was the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Tour De France.

Designed by Pinin Farina, with a powerful V12 engine, strengthened chassis and aluminium body, this car has breathtaking looks and is also arguably the greatest and most important Ferrari road/racing car ever built.

It delivered four victories in the 10-day Tour De France plus two category wins and a second overall in the Mille Miglia.  It also triumphed in its class at Le Mans.  The example above is one of 45 built between 1956 and 1960.

Carefree Style: Jackie Kennedy in Ravello, 1962

In August 1962, Jacqueline Kennedy holidayed in the beautiful Amalfi coast town of Ravello with her son John John, her daughter Caroline and her sister and brother.  The location had been recommended to her by the writer and distant relative Gore Vidal, a Ravello resident.

Despite White House instructions that the stay should be low key, the holiday inevitably attracted huge interest.  On arrival Jackie was met by the mayor of Ravello, a band and a decorated town.  For three weeks, the stylish and photogenic First Lady was snapped by the paparazzi sailing, dining, swimming, water skiing, barefoot dancing the twist and cha cha, experiencing the sites of the area and generally epitomising La Dolce Vita.  

During the stay, he was hosted by L’Avvocato, the equally stylish, famously wealthy and wildly promiscuous Gianni Agnelli.  Tongues wagged about a possible liaison.  When she left, she said she would return with her husband; a promise never fulfilled due to his murder a year later.

More pictures of cool 1960s Jackie-ness in Ravello below:

Io Amo Napoli!

A greying, sick man sits on a beach on a southern shore and speaks warmly about Naples.  Marcello Mastroianni, the incomparable and very cool post-war Italian actor, notes that ‘the strength of the Neapolitan is ..in their character, in their nature, in their traditions’.  He continues:

‘Io amo Napoli. E’ la città meno americanizzata d’Italia anzi d’Europa. Una volta a Roma,mentre passeggiavo,qualcuno alle mie spalle disse:”Ammazza le rughe,come s’è invecchiato!”, invece a Napoli uno mi si avvicinò così:” Marcellì, ce simmo fatt’ viecchiarell,eh? ‘o volite nu cafe?” :che garbo,che gentilezza d’animo…Napoli va presa come una città unica,molto intelligente: Napoli è troppo speciale quindi non la possono capire tutti’.

Translation and video below.

Sunday Italian Style: 1965 Alfa Romeo 2600

In Rosso Alfa, a 1965 Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider Touring finished over a tan leather interior. With only 2,257 Spiders produced between 1961 to 1968, the 2600 spiders are becoming exceedingly rare to come by.

A great car for a Sunday afternoon drive along the Amalfi coast.

The Most Beautiful Car…..in the World

Take a beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C and make it even more beautiful.  500,000 Euros of pure Italian style.  The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante as driven by Jeremy Clarkson.

Sunday Italian Cool: Lamborghini Aventador

Is there anything more Italian than a Lambo?  Dramatic, noisy, flamboyant, operatic, bonkers.

The Aventador, only the fifth flagship V12 that Lamborghini have ever produced, is like a stealth fighter on tyres, powered by a massive 700 horsepower 6.5 litre engine, reaching a top speed of 217mph.  0 – 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds.  Jeremy Clarkson said of it that:

‘It’s a brute of a car. You don’t drive it. You wrestle with it. It’s more refined than Lambos of old and less inclined to want to kill you. But when you open the taps you are no longer driving. You are hanging on.’

Official video below.  And yes, Orange is the new Black.

Sunday Cool: David Gandy in Dolce & Gabbana

Saturday Cool: Giovanni Agnelli

Italy’s Style Sovereign.  Photo c/o Swide.com

Saturday Cool: Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Mastroianni, the face of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, in Fellini’s 8 1/2.  Photo via the Irish Times.

Cool. Italian Style

The Guardian highlights a exhibition this Summer in London:

‘The Years of La Dolce Vita’  explores one of the most fertile periods in contemporary Italian cinema and the simultaneous explosion of celebrity culture. The 80 photographs, on view from 30 April to 29 June , capture the dolce vita (literally ‘sweet life’) enjoyed by Italian film stars and Hollywood ‘royalty’ working in Rome during the 1960s.

Photograph: Arturo Zavattini /Solares Fondazione delle Arti