Detour Pit Stop #116: Museo Targa Florio, Sicily, Italy

For the most authentic experience of the historic Targa Florio visit this small collection in Collesano.

The Targa Florio was the last great road race, cruel on drivers and cars, with somewhere around 800 corners in each 43-mile lap of broken roads through mostly rural countryside. It would have been incredibly dangerous had average speeds not been so low, but all the main drivers and teams of the day raced there until it fell off the sports car calendar in 1973.

Located halfway up the main street in Collesano, nestling in the mountain foothills 70km from Palermo and a 45-minute drive from the beautiful costal (and tourist) town of Cefalù, the Museo Targa Florio is a small museum full of memorabilia, from pieces of cars to a large number of framed photos, all with captions in English. There are no cars in here (it’s housed in part of the town hall) but walls and cabinets are filled with bronze plaques, race suits of drivers like Englishman Vic Elford and Palermo schoolteacher Nino Vaccarella, race helmets, model cars, trophies and so much more. Ex-drivers have visited over the years and signed memorabilia and there’s an intimate feel to the place.

The staff don’t speak English so come prepared with some basic Italian. There’s no shop (bizarrely there’s a cabinet with stacks of magnets, T-shirts, cards and so on but display only), in fact you will find it hard to find any Targa Florio postcards or memorabilia for sale anywhere on Sicily.

Aside from the Targa, Collesano was best known for its ceramic industry, which is on the rise again, especially tiles, and you’ll find a large tile plaque outside the building. You’ll spot more celebrating the Targa Florio around the town.

When you leave the museum, walk up the hill and turn left up a steep lane opposite Via Imera. At the top you’ll find the most famous corner on the Targa Florio, and the driver’s names painted large on walls up to and beyond the hairpin. Turn left instead on Via Isnello and 50 metres along is La Lanterna, an excellent pasta/pizza restaurant.

Words & Photography Simon Fox

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ROADBOOK

CLASS: motor museum

NAME: Museo Targa Florio,

ROUTE: Corso Vittorio Emanuele 3, Collesano, IT 90016

COUNTRY: ITALY

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