By Bart Kleyn
Richard Wijnschenk and Henny Wijnschenk in an Alfa Romeo Gulia Spider on the Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso.
For the past few years via-flaminia.com has been running a low key, highly scenic and by all accounts thoroughly enjoyable tour through Italy. This year on May 23rd thirty- five classic cars from seven countries assembled in Dusseldorf for the fourth Via Flaminia Tour. The entrants load their cars on the train for a trip to Verona for the start of the first leg of the event.
Fred van Lingen and Joke van Lingen with a 1964 Alfa Gulia.
The Tour then left directly for the Apennines with its curvy roads, which offer great driving pleasures. The group traveled over the mountain pass between Emilia Romagna and Tuscany which in another time marked the border between the city-states of Florence and Pisa, and spent the night in the superb hill-perched town of San Miniato.
The small town center of Orte (on the border between the regions of Lazio and Umbria) was transformed in one big open air museum.
The second day the mountains give way to the Tuscan hills, where the contrast between the freshly-ploughed earth and the green vegetation couldn’t be more pronounced. After a lunch at the thermal baths of San Filippo the night was spent at Capalbio, a tiny, walled town overlooking the Mediterranean.
Luc Slijpen and Rob Koremans 1963 Lancia Flaminia Convertibile 2.8 3C, the car which gave its name to the Tour.
From Tuscany the tour goes through Umbria, a region dotted with ancient hill-perched towns. Umbria seems dedicated to the production and eating of food and is home to olive trees, vineyards, truffles, chocolate, deer and wild boar. While going south, the amount of wild vegetation increases, the number of villages decreases, and goats replace the sheep.
Second in the Sport class this Lancia Fulvia Coup 1.3 Rallye driven by Dirk Jan de Jong and Mike Antonissen.
The high planes around the Corno Grande (2912 m) and above Norcia have become a Via Flaminia tradition and offer some of the best driving and views possible. So picturesque the mountains, the Gran Sasso national park is often referred to as “little Tibetâ€.
Lancia Flaminia Convertibile negotiates a very old street which has eroded in the landscape, near Viterbo (regin of Lazio).
On the way back to Tuscany the car club from Perugia escorted the Tour participants to the city centre where there was time to visit the medieval Duomo and have a lunch. On the way to the highway the Perugia club brought the group to one of the biggest Ferrari, Maserati and Lancia dealers of Italy where the group saw the latest coming from Modena and Turin, and also some beautiful classic Lancia’s such as two Aprila’s. The night was spent at the Castle of Gargonza in Tuscany.
Jan and Marjanne Cupido’s 1971 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Super
on the high planes below Campo Imperatore, where in 1943 Mussolini was kept in prison by the partizans before being freed by the Germans. In the background, the Corno Grande.
This year’s Tour saw the participation of four pre-war cars; a British registered and American owned MG K1/K3 (1934), a Danish MG SA Tickford (1936), a British registered and Dutch-owned Bentley Special Speed Six (1935). Newcomer to the Tour was a Suffolk SS 100 Jaguar (1938). The other participants brought a variety of cars, ranging from the Amsterdam-Bejing prepared Checker Marathon (1972) of almost 3 tons (!) to the agile 1967 Lancia Fulvia Coupe.
Next year will be the 5th Via Flaminia Tour, and will be a very special event indeed. Please have a look at www.via-Flaminia .com or send a mail to B.Kleyn@via-flaminia.com.
ziet er weer prachtig uit, Bart,
hou ons op de hoogte…
groet,
Onno
Though I am just around the corner i haven’t seen or talked to you in quite a while, but i always read the magazine.
Just a note to say the new format is great —
Good luck and i hope all is well with you and yours.
Both my ALFAs the 72 and 91 Spiders] are running and looking good.
Keep up the good work
your friend,
Rich