The linen hangs just right. Not the stiff, over-ironed sort the Milanese wear to make an entrance, but the kind that has been softened by countless summers and a thousand wash cycles. Off-white in colour, your favourite shirt is cut with that roomy 1960s ease, its sleeves rolled twice, not more, not less. The trousers are the same, a light, sand-coloured, the crease long forgotten, contrasted by a leather belt that matches the shade of a dark espresso. And naturally you are wearing slip-on loafers, no socks, because here in Lake Como, it’s known that ankles breathe better than stiff neckties. The gravel shifts beneath your feet, stepping down the garden path. There it is, waiting in the same spot as always, your trusted 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, in the kind of deep, lustrous red that only Italian sunlight can truly understand.
Those lines drawn in period by Franco Scaglione for Bertone are so fluid, they could have been sketched on a ripple of lake water off into the distance. The lake has its moods, misty one morning, crystalline the next, but the Giulietta always gleams the same effortless way. It has often been written about, how a car suits a particular landscape like they were sculpted from the same stone, born from the same terroir. But for Lake Como and the Giulietta that rolled off the Alfa Romeo plant just half an hour south of here, they certainly share a vanity, but neither needs to try too hard. The passing tourists crane their necks for a glimpse of both, a villa draped in wisteria here, a chrome bumper catching the light there, showcasing perhaps this truly is pure, infiltered Italy. Beauty, engineering, romance and endless charm.
This is a car for driving, but not in the usual, journalistic sense, where one would wax lyrical about the car’s chassis balance or upfront torque. It’s a car that encourages you to drive it, but to savour every single moment of it. Finding that perfect, locals-only spot, the spot where you know tourists won’t find unless they’re lost or invited, the Giulietta SS has a chance to tick itself to a cooler temperature, parked directly in the line of sight that allows its driver and other locals the chance to relish in this oh-so Italian romance.
While certain months of the year the serenity of Lake Como is swapped with supercars and multi-million classics, the Giulietta SS remains something of a bargain. For under 100,000 Euros, you can experience true Italian craftsmanship and a masterclass in design, and a car you’ll find yourself itching to drive, even if it’s to that same locals-only coffee spot, day in, day out!
