Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este

Last Sunday, after spending the night in Bellagio, we attended the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este.

Villa d'Este is a luxury hotel in Cernobbio just outside the town of Como. The hotel grounds are quite extensive with a number of buildings. This is a villa on the property that is for rent separately. I cannot imagine how much it costs per night!

The cars in the Concorso sort of wrapped around this villa.

This is another picture of the villa from straight on. The concept cars were parked right in front of the villa. In the foreground of this picture is the judging of the motorcycle classes.

This is the view out onto Lago di Como from the Villa d'Este grounds. It was all incredibly well manicured. Many of the trees were labeled with their botanical names in both Italian and English.

There was also some beautiful statuary that looked like it had been there for several hundred years.

 There was a bandstand with a small orchestra playing. As you can see, many of the people were quite well dressed. However, there were also people in jeans, shorts and t-shirts.

Some of the car owners dressed to match their automobiles. The woman in pink had a Twenties vintage automobile. The event had the aura of a ritzy garden party.

As you can see we were not our usual grubby selves!

I got a kick out of this guy's Bermuda shorts and socks! Many people had heavy duty photographic equipment including tripods. I took over 100 pictures but you won't see them all.

The main entry was through a large building that from the outside looked like a giant conservatory. Here is Dom taking a closer look at a BMW 1800 TISA. He used to race this model car in 1965! 

After exiting the conservatory building the lawn spread out towards the lake.

The first group of cars were all really small models. This one is a post World War II model made by Messerschmitt, the same company that made German fighter planes. One can see the relationship.

This looks like a toy car but was a serious model. Many of these very small cars were sold in Europe after World War II.

Another one that looks like it should be part of the bumper cars at the carnival.

This is a three wheel model. There is only one wheel in the rear.

Another super cute model. Wouldn't you like to tool down the road in that on a sunny summer day?

I tried to get the car information included in the picture whenever possible. If you want to know more you will have to enlarge the picture.

This particular car had a built-in beer keg in the trunk! You could actually buy a beer from the attendant.

This is a Smart Car that has an entire DJ set-up built into the rear end. There is a company called Rinspeed that has all sorts of rear end modules that you can buy.

There were cars of all different vintages.

I am a sucker for any vehicle with luggage strapped to a rear rack. Not sure why. Maybe because it symbolizes the start of a new adventure.

I also like these cars with three headlights. Dom says the center one often aimed with the steering. This vehicle won a major prize. You can see the trophy sitting on top of the car.

Some of the cars looked racier than others.

I found the camera attached to the top of this one amusing. You can go home and watch where you have been. Although you can also study your line at the track to figure out how to improve performance.

This is quite a showy vehicle from a Los Angeles museum.

And the back of the same vehicle.

The concept cars were gorgeous! I love this Ford with the gull wing doors opening from the center.

The interior of the Ford.

And the rear.

Not sure who the manufacturer is of the concept car but I believe it only has one door.

A view of the same vehicle from the front.

I think this is the Lexus concept car. All of them were very swoopy.

Another concept car.

This was the most interesting concept car. It is a four passenger sedan. On one side it has two doors. The rear door is a suicide door (opens backwards).

On the driver side it only has one door.

It had hardwood floors and trim!

The dash looked like something out of a science fiction film--all digital display!

Here is another shot of the two doors on the passenger side.

We sat in the grandstand for a while and listened to the presentation of the prizes for the motorcycle classes. As with most all events in Italy there were the requisite pretty girls for ornamentation. I liked their vintage outfits.

I believe this is a Lamborghini.

There were some old race cars.

More cars...

And more cars. It was difficult to get pictures without half a dozen people in the shot.

I really liked this Delahaye, a classic French vehicle. It was a lovely shade of Taupe and just very elegant looking.

The interior of the Delahaye.

And a view from the side.

Dom mentioned that my dad is a fan of woodies. This one is from Michigan.

Some of the vehicles had stickers from the 2012 Mille Miglia classic car rally that was a few weeks ago. I suppose if you are shipping your car to Italy you might as well get the most fun out of it.

We spent several hours at the Concorso but finally decided we had done it all. Off to Como we went were we found a lakeside cafe for lunch. On our way back to the car I saw this rose bush in the park. Does anyone know what variety this might be? I love the single flower and the deep red color with the bright yellow center. They are common here in Italy but I do not recall seeing it in the U.S.

This weekend we are off to a mostra scambio (classic car swap meet) near Grossetto.