Visit at the Museum Mille Miglia in Brescia

Visit at the Museum Mille Miglia in Brescia

Thinking about the next Mille Miglia, magnificent historical event that gathers every year in Brescia vintage car enthusiasts from all over the world, we took the opportunity to re-visit the Museum of the Mille Miglia, located on the outskirts of Brescia.

The museum exhibition is staged in the generous space offered by the former Monastery of "Saint Eufemia della Fonte", dating back to the eleventh century. Abandoned in 1444 by the monks, after changing fortunes becomes possession of the City of Brescia, which gives these buildings 1997 to the Mille Miglia association in order to organize and fit out the museum, which opened its doors in 2004.

The structure appears today as a former barn, kind of upside- G , with a large courtyard in the middle where you can easily park your car, surrounded by the sight of the many oldtimers that look onto from the large windows of the museum wings.

We happen on a day in which the museum houses one of the many " Fairs of the Spouses".  Not wanting us to dwell .. it seems not to be the case for us .. we just go ahead to the entrance. By chance we realize the occasion is propitious to exhibit some beautiful ceremony cars. After a nice chat with the owner of a fantastic model of Rolls Royce, we finally get approaching the entrance.

Upon entering the exhibition, immediately we are struck by the elegance of the large (and a bit expensive to be honest ) variety of quality gadgets and items, linked to the world of cars and Mille Miglia races, which are for sale here.
In addition to this you can  also purchase publications, souvenirs, t-shirts, sweatshirts and race clothing. It will surely please fans.

After buying a ticket at a cost of 7 Euro, an attendant explains us very kindly how to go across the museum .

We climb a flight of stairs to reach the first floor and the beginning of the path. It starts with 1927. We are pleasantly charmed by some model of OM and Aston Martin. All cars come with an historical and technical description. The visit course, ideally realized as a road, is full of posters, testimonies, vintage clothing, gadgets, cups and newspaper articles (in addition to the many cars of course!). This really take the visitor through the history of the Mille Miglia. We also find some very interesting motorcycle.

The museum is divided into nine sections. Seven are devoted to the Mille Miglia 1927-1957, one to 1958-1961 Mille Miglia and one to the contemporary Mille Miglia.

Curiously, every so often you will find, under a glass floor, a reproduction of the road surface at the time you are "going along".

The smell of engine oil can be intense and makes you even feel the excitement of this race, alive today as it was in the past.

We went down again to reach the ground floor and complete the museum tour. We stayed few minutes at the shop to buy one of the publications of the museum and ended the visit with a good and well-deserved cappuccino at the bar of the museum.

We are sure that you will be pleasantly surprised and fascinated by this museum. We always suggest a stop here, when it comes to the oppurtunity of visiting Brescia and its other wonders, the Santa Giulia Museum above all.

You can look the pictures set on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjSDkcQV