The Alfa Romeo Museum near Milan

     Chris and I first visited the Alfa Romeo Museum on our trip to Italy in 2002.  Alfa's fortunes were on a downturn at the time, and the museum closed a couple of years later.  Many thought it would be the end of the magnificent collection that included automobiles dating to Alfa's inception in 1910. Thankfully, fortunes turned for the better, Fiat (Alfa's parent company) restructured and teamed with Chrysler to form FCA, and money was found to re-open the museum.  The collection was reorganized and placed in a state-of-the-art facility in a brand new building.  The new Museo Storico Alfa Romeo was re-opened in 2015.
 
     The problem, from our point of view, is the the museum is located in the distant suburb of Arese, some 12 miles outside of Milan.  To get there from the historic center of Milan requires a 100 euro round trip taxi ride.  And because of that, the museum is lightly visited.  It should have been built in the city of Milan, but they didn't ask me!

Can't wait to go in!

Our tickets to enter

 




 




   





   






   That said, the museum is fantastic.  It is roughly divided into three areas.... TIMELINE, presenting Alfa cars through the years;   BEAUTY, the various studios responsible for design;   and SPEED, Alfa's remarkable history of racing success.   Included in the TIMELINE area were examples of Alfa's aviation success in the mid 20th century.

   

The first Alfa, from 1910

The famous 1952 Disco Volante (flying disc)

How cool is this thing, from 1913?

Beautiful concept from Pininfarina

The perfect car for a night on the town!

     

Creatively displayed, you could see front and rear of the cars

     One of the mini theaters in the museum showed clips from movies that featured Alfa Romeo cars. Probably the most famous "Alfa film" was The Graduate, where Dustin Hoffman is often seen driving a 1966 Alfa Duetto.  Here's a photo we took of the film clip.  Next to the screen was this red Duetto, we're not sure if it is the exact car from the movie, but if not it's a great stand-in.

 
    Alfa Romeo has always been known to have a cuore sportivo, a sporting heart.  That couldn't have been displayed with greater passion that what we saw in the SPEED section of the museum.  Here are a few photos, and a two minute video we recorded in the multi-media room...

This 1935 Alfa has two engines, and a Ferrari sticker!  It
was built by Enzo Ferrari while he was selling Alfas,
before he started Ferrari as we know it today.

Alfas driven by Mario and Michael Andretti

Here's a link to the video.......  If the link isn't visible, hover your cursor in the space below and it should materialize......

                           www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KV6WvASex4

     Just beyond the SPEED section is this cool wall of miniature Alfa car models, who knew there were so many!

                                               

 










     The museum concludes with a four minute, 4D multi-media film you watch with special 4D glasses. You are strapped into seats that move around like crazy while watching a "race" on the screen, and you experience air and water sprayed on you..... and we said yes!  Had we known what we were in for... we would have decided against it.  We had intended to have a bite in the Museum Caffe' when we were finished, but after the 4D film we were both so queasy there was no eating.

   

We didn't eat here!

     Except for the 100 euro round-trip taxi ride and the crazy 4D film at the end, it was a great experience, and well worth the 14-year wait to return!