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The Piero Taruffi Museum in Bagnoregio: Racing Engines, Fellini and a Record-Breaking Racer in Tuscia
The Piero Taruffi Museum tells the story of a racing driver, an engineer and an entire era: that of roaring engines, the Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles) and land speed records. Taruffi won the final edition of the Mille Miglia in 1957 at the age of fifty, then retired from competitive racing. The museum bearing his name was founded in 1998, and has been housed since 2002 in a restored former slaughterhouse on Via Fidanza. The museum takes a broader view: not merely the biography of a driver, but a century of mechanical ingenuity - from the dawn of the internal combustion engine to the aerodynamic innovations of the Bisiluro.
The Bisiluro and the 500 Unseen Drawings
The centrepiece of the visit is the permanent exhibition Close Look at the Bisiluro - Anatomy of a Racing Machine, installed in 2011. Approximately 500 original engineering drawings are on display, some bearing the engineer's own handwritten corrections, illustrating how this record-breaking vehicle - whose aerodynamic lines are still considered exceptional today - actually worked. Panels and archive footage accompany the visitor through the exhibition.
Fellini, Vintage Radios and Much More
Yet there is more. One gallery is dedicated to Fellini's La Strada, partly filmed in Bagnoregio: on display are the wedding costumes worn in the film and a reconstruction of Zampanò's three-wheeled motorcycle truck. Another room houses a collection of vintage radios and car radios. Then there are the sculptures of Stefano Rossi, crafted from mechanical components, and a picture gallery that grows by one new work inspired by Taruffi each year.
