Sitting outside a cafe on the Via Veneto this evening you would see Anouk
Aimee and Marcello Mastroiani cruise past in one of these:
This is a Cadillac 62 Series Convertible (called an Eldorado if it was a really luxurious model) from 1958. For the technically minded, its V8 engine developed well over 300 B.H.P. - a hugely powerful car. Anouk Aimee's character drives one in La dolce Vita, it prompted the famous line from a gritty lady of the night:
"thats not a car, it's an apartment!"
If we sat at our coffee table this particular evening, and watched Fellini and his camera crew following behind the car as it swoops down the Via Veneto , we would see from the look on her face that in reality Anouk wasn't very happy about driving it. She had hardly any driving experience at all and to be behind the wheel of an 18 foot long Cadillac filled her with fear.
At this time the Via Veneto is full of people watching the spectacle of the movie stars, the film being made, people having photographs taken of them by the paparrazzi. The road is very busy as the Cadillac swoops along.
We can't decide whether to sit
here and watch the cars go by, or go and look
at the film stars.
We can see lots of other marques
of Italian car, for example Lancia is very popular.
Here is an older but very popular model, an Aurelia from 1952.
It is a beautiful a nd very successful model that continued in production
in various versions for many years. In the future (for example the 1990's)
it is a very sought after classic.
There are an incredible
number of FIAT cars. We see Paparrazo follow the
Cadillac in an open top FIAT Topolino.
This picture is of one of the first ones, made in 1956. The name Topolino in Italian reflects the fact that people thought the car looked like Mickey Mouse!
Of course, there
is no way we could ignore the beautiful Alfa-Romeo
cars of this time.
This is my personal favorite of all time; the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider 750 (or 101) series.
I still don't own one of these, if someone has one they want to sell, please email me at the address below (any condition/country considered)!
Finally, we may
see a few luxury cars. This is a Maserati A6G
2000/B Berlina, from 1959.
It had a maximum speed of over 130 mph and was (and is) a very stunning car to look at.
Anyone have one of these in the nineties?
Nevertheless we are
in Italy, not everyone uses a car, from our cafe table we can see hundreds
of scooters buzzing past.
They featured in many Italian and European films.
Here we see a scene from Io Bacio Tu Baci.
Of course, Rome has been very famous for other stars on scooters in years gone by.....
Last Updated 8th of February 1999
Please note: This site has been offline for nearly 2 years (!!). It is currently under heavy construction. If the page you are interested in is incomplete - or you have suggestions on site errors or improvements, please email me using the link above.
