For the first consecutive year we were present in Cernobbio at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, a sort of high class car meet with the most beautiful classics and the wildest concepts. Every other year an auction is being held by RM Auctions. Unfortunately this year was the 'wrong' year, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless!
The prestigious estate Villa d'Este is the perfect background for the Concorso. The region of Lombardy is absolutely stunning and the Villa is situated at the crystal clear Lake Como. But it's not only the location that is accountable for the special atmosphere, the people that attend the Concorso play a possibly even bigger role. The members of the jury have their own uniform and the visitors, yes, the visitors: if you think you have seen some impeccably dressed people, well, you haven't seen it all. One is even more decadent than the other, it's truly a party for the rich and famous. Everyone stands out at Villa d'Este, if it's not the car it's probably the way one's dressed.
Back to the cars: BMW showed the beautiful 2002 Hommage (which we've already discussed) to the public this year and Aston Martin cooperated with Zagato to create the absolutely brilliant Vanquish Zagato Concept. Mazda and Alpine also brought some of their new designs, but BMW and Aston Martin stole the show. It didn't stop there though: the crème de la crème of the automotive industry was presented to the public during the Grand Parade. The nicest car? That has to be the Bugatti 57 SC Atlante. Also, quite a lot of important people walked around here like Adriaan van Hooydonck (Chief Design BMW), ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Cogan, Valentino Balboni (shouldn't need any more explanation), Fabio Filippini (Chief Design Pininfarina) and Marek Reichman (Chief Design Aston Martin).
All in all Villa d'Este was a great succes again this year. However, we suspect that when the RM auction takes place, the beautiful location at lake Como is a lot busier!
