by: Matt Franey Race of the rich Italy gone mad Not a gentle stroll Police on your side Everybody's out Best Brits

In the 1920s, life was different for your average European playboy. In the town of Brescia in northern Italy, for example, bored aristocrats would while away the hours by racing the trains that ran past Lake Garda and into Milan. There they would park their Bugattis and Alfa Romeos and spend hours drinking espressos and swapping race stories with motoring heroes of the day like Tazio Nuvolari and Rudi Caracciola.

For four such bored aristos, however, racing trains wasn't enough. Together they hatched a plan to put Brescia on the motoring map and in so doing founded a race that to this day captures the imagination of this car-mad country in a way that is unimaginable anywhere else.

Northen Italy home to famous marques...

Their creation was the Mille Miglia, a 1000-mile non-stop charge from Brescia to Rome and back again. It was an event that would become revered the world over, as the greatest racing teams and carmakers of the era competed to win the coveted Mille Miglia trophy.