Where many collections and museums focus on rarity, originality, racing heritage, or the breadth of a vehicle marque, we’ve chosen to do the opposite. The gallery is a mix of Italian cars, motorcycles, bicycles and curios that were intended for maximum production, affordability, and accessibility. In the waning days of World War II, young entrepreneurs and established manufacturers-built production lines from ruins, with the shared ambition of moving the people of Italy forwards. In gleaming Ford-inspired factories and rustic shops, hundreds of manufacturers churned out the “macchine del popolo” that soon filled Italy’s country roads and urban alleys.
The collection invites curious guests to see, feel, smell, and hear how everyday Italians moved. In an era where cars can steer themselves, few drivers worry if their vehicle will start, or make it up a hill, or stop at the bottom, or fit their luggage, or keep them cool on a hot summer day.
These were all genuine and daily concerns, and welcome complexities since Italians enjoyed a mobility that was impossible or inaccessible to most only a handful of years prior. Where now one might now take a casual road trip, in the 1950, 1960s, and 1970s these were true journeys.
These were all genuine and daily concerns, and welcome complexities since Italians enjoyed a mobility that was impossible or inaccessible to most only a handful of years prior. Where now one might now take a casual road trip, in the 1950, 1960s, and 1970s these were true journeys.
As you experience the collection, imagine packing your family into the Fiat 500 en route to a summer holiday, or pulling the door shut on the Isetta before a 1000-mile race, or pulling up to a first date on a shiny Vespa.
