Inaugurated in 2012, Villa d’Este Style is an annual event paying tribute to a car model that has made history. This year, it celebrated a cardinal anniversary: 70 years have passed since the creation of the first Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este, the undisputed protagonist of the event, where some valuable and extremely rare examples of the car are gathered at the enchanting Villa d’Este, founder and promoter of the ceremony.
“We have always been honored to welcome these masterpieces, and share their owners’ passion for these marvelous models, a crucial part of the history of Italian car design. There’s a true community of enthusiastic collectors, who have a chance to share and discuss their experiences of the beauty, authenticity and performances of their cars”, said Giuseppe Fontana, President of the Villa d’Este Group. In 2011, he added one of this Alfa Romeos to the art collection at Villa d’Este. “Given the huge success that our annual car parade on the lakeside meets, we have decided to rerun it during this event too, so that everyone could have a chance to get a closer look at the rare beauty of these models”, added Danilo Zucchetti, General Director of Villa d’Este Hotels.
The charm of the car is further enhanced by the extraordinary setting after which the model is named: the Villa d’Este hotel on the Como Lake, where the car goes back every year to celebrate the Italian excellence as expressed through the purest designs and the finest hospitality.
In 1949, at the last historical edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza (an elegance contest), the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este model won the “Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este” prize, particularly for its design: conceived by Carrozzeria Touring, it marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Italian car design, as it stood out for its lightness and grace, captured the atmosphere of the time and represented the country’s excellent practices.
Villa d’Este Style involved seven Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este cars from all over the world, one for every decade of the model history. Alongside the Villa d’Este cars, three more models sporting Carrozzeria Touring’s unmistakable looks attended the event as special guests: an Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 from 1936, an Isotta Fraschini 8C Monterosa from 1948 and a Giulia GTC from 1966, the last Alfa Romeo to be built by Touring. The privileged relationship between Alfa Romeo and Carrozzeria Touring was the leitmotif of this year’s edition of the event.
In the early afternoon, the cars paraded along the lakefront in Cernobbio to reach Piazza Risorgimento, where they were showcased for visitors to admire the glorious beauty of these models, together with another fifty Alfa Romeo vintage cars courtesy of passionate members of the International Alfa Romeo Register, the Classic Club Italia, the Veteran Car Club Como and the Club Milanese Automotoveicoli d’Epoca, which were free to informally attend the event, for an even more memorable day.
“It’s always a great pleasure to celebrate the unrivalled quality of the creations by designers, technicians and workforce at Alfa Romeo and Carrozzeria Touring. And that’s even truer now, on the 70th anniversary of the Villa d’Este, the first car designed by Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni, who succeeded his father right in 1949. Many other masterpieces followed, which he humbly pretended not to remember…”, reveals Marco Makaus, Project Manager of Villa d’Este Style and the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este register.
Once again, Villa D’Este Style has proved to be a unique occasion to unveil masterpieces whose timeless style is still influencing the car design world today.
