Museo Storico Alfa Romeo

[Evan Bottcher]

Hi folks,

Last week we visited the Museo Storico in Arese.  This was our second visit, the first in 2001.  A fairly big storm had come through the north (drowning us at Rapallo on the coast) and caused some water damage in the museum, so some interesting cars had been put in more deep storage for safety.  However it was still wonderful and most of the cars that were must-see for me were on display.

We also bumped into Alessandro, who was here in March to drive the 159.  I said hello and he told me some stuff I didn't understand but I did pick up "Bruno" and "Damian" and "June".  He was moving cars back into the museum using the car elevator and some neat hydraulic trolleys.

I didn't make it here for the celebrations in June, but this makes up for it a little bit at least :-)

cheers,
Evan.

[Evan Bottcher]

a couple more... last time I was here there was no 156 touring car in the museum, they were still racing!

[Storm_X]

wow lovely photos

i have allways wanted to visit the storico museo

no more photos by anychance ?

[Paul Gulliver]

wow lovely photos

i have allways wanted to visit the storico museo

no more photos by anychance

Storm , just got back from O/S yesterday. I was at the Alfa museo at Arese last week. I will post some more photo's in a couple of days. Its great to look at Evan's photo's because i took photo's of nearly the same cars. Got some extra ones of the 155 touring cars for Jim Neilson.

Tragically for Sheldon & Dehne despite a thorough search no Alfa 90 could be found.  ( I was looking for the one that could do 150 mph) Must  have been one of the cars  that went to the Pebble Beach in USA

Interestly when we arrived there was only one other couple in the Museum. After a few minutes the wife said " Come on you must have seen everthing i want to go." Perfect Australian dialect. It was another Australian Alfa tragic from Brisbane. I can't recall his name now but he said pop's up an this site every now and then.

The world is definetly getting smaller.        

[Storm_X]

hay paul any giuliettas ?

[Paul Gulliver]

Sadly no. However ther was a beautiful 1973 silver  Alfetta sedan

[1750GTV]

Interestly when we arrived there was only one other couple in the Museum. After a few minutes the wife said " Come on you must have seen everthing i want to go." Perfect Australian dialect. It was another Australian Alfa tragic from Brisbane. I can't recall his name now but he said pop's up an this site every now and then.

The world is definetly getting smaller.        

Paul,
That other tragic was me. My wife - actually more tolerant than you think - and I were on the Italian leg of our holiday and were staying in Milano. We'd caught the train to Rho and then a local taxi to Arese to spend some time at the Museum. I took about 200 photos that afternoon and will post a couple of the better ones when we finally get home later this week.
Regards,
Chris

[Paul Gulliver]

Chris,

Glad to hear you, your wife & the photo's are still on tour & arrive  home shortly. The Museo was certainly one of the suprise highligths of our trip. Even " Snapper" my wife enjoyed the day.

Cheers


Paul

[1750GTV]

The racing/competition cars are above so I've attached a few photos of some of the others in the Museum.

Here are the first 4.

My pick is the 8C2300 - I asked the guard at Arese to deliver it to my home address

Chris

[1750GTV]

Here are a few more.

The Museum is quite a strange place. When we arrived the guard checked my ID (Oz drivers license is OK), issued me with a pass and directed us up the drive to the last building on the left. We entered and it was immediately apparent that we were the only ones there. Multimillion dollars worth of cars on display and the only instruction was printed on a small piece of paper on the desk near the entrance. It requested visitors to show the cars due respect - that plus a personal reverence (and the CCTV network) kept the collection safe. It was almost as if the Italians didn't know, or care, about what was housed under that expansive roof line.

You don't feel as if you are in a museum - the cars seem to come out to greet you. There is a bare minimum of tape to keep you from them and in many cases they are just sitting on the open floor as if just recently parked. Apart from the fact that he's been dead for some years, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if Tazio Nuvolari had stepped out from behind one of the many magnificent Jano race cars on display. I must admit that I nearly put my hand on a couple of bonnets just to see if they were still warm.

Prior to entry I'd asked the guard in my halting Italian if it was OK to take photographs. He told me to ignore the solitary 'no photos' sign indicating that it had come with the attached 'no smoking' sign and they'd not bothered to separate the pair.

Hopefully, we will be in Italy again in a couple of years and now that I know how to get there, I intend to make another pilgrimage.

Another dream achieved - now about that 8C 2300 .......

Chris

PS: I was nice meeting other fans, even if they were from Australia

[1750GTV]

Sorry - just one more. I can't resist ......

Got to get to bed soon as we've a long flight home.

Chris