My grandfather Cesare once said to the younger me that the secret to achieving something was to have either a business plan or a dream. ‘The first are more successful, but the latter are more fun,’ he’d add. ‘And if you make your dream come true, you’ll have something extraordinary and unique, because no two dreams are identical.’ When I asked what if you had a dream and a business plan, he’d smile, as that was the question he’d been hoping for. ‘Then you are a visionary,’ he’d say. ‘There aren’t many of those.’
History has left us with many dreamers and planners. But what about visionaries? I’m sure it is not by chance that we find more of them among the technicians that worked for companies than among their founders. But there is no doubt that most visionary of all in the early years of the automobile were the customers, the most eclectic, gifted, educated and talented human beings.
And it is such a perfect recipe of passion, technical capacity and vision that gave us the unique 1950 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Riva ‘Serenissima’ Berlinetta. After all, you have to be a little Guido Cattaneo, Count Giovanni Lurani and the handcrafting skills of the Riva brothers. Each of them is worthy of a dedicated feature in his own right, but a brief introduction must suffice here.
