There is news coming from Modena that, if read carefully, seems written to console those who have been wondering for years what happened to the pleasure of traveling in this country. Maserati and Egnazia Italian Hospitality have decided to join forces. The result is called «Italian Way of Driving by Maserati». It is not a new car model, it is not another resort. It is something more ambitious and, in its own way, more Italian: the claim to transform the road into a cultural experience.
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It starts from Borgo Egnazia, in Puglia, and continues like this: Ostuni a Mare, Santavenere in Maratea, the hotels of the Dolomites, La Tiara di Cervo in Costa Smeralda. In between, the cars. GranTurismo and GranCabrio for the Mediterranean landscapes, where beauty is slow and a bit theatrical. Grecale, the Trident’s SUV, for the mountains and the more challenging curves.
The strategy
The idea is simple: you no longer drive just to arrive. You drive to get in touch with the territory. The road becomes part of hospitality. Hospitality becomes the privileged access point to discovering places. The phrases, in the press release, follow each other with the same slightly solemn elegance as the cars they promote.
Riccardo Vannetti, from Egnazia, speaks of travel as a cultural experience, even before as a crossing. Cristiano Fiorio, from Maserati, recalls the hundred years of the Trident and says that the Italian lifestyle is not a reference, but a way of being. Both seem convinced that Italy, if seen from the seat of a Maserati, finally reveals its true character: landscapes, communities, knowledge, memories. As if until yesterday we had traveled with our eyes closed.
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The project
On one hand, it is pure marketing, the kind that knows how to sell the obvious with the air of someone who has discovered America. On the other hand, it is an implicit and rather honest admission: in Italy, travel has always needed a beautiful car to become real. The Grand Tour of our times is no longer done on horseback or by stagecoach. It is done with the dull roar of an engine and the leather seat that smells new. Puglia, Basilicata, the Dolomites, Sardinia are itineraries. And itineraries, as we know, exist only if someone travels them with a certain grace.
Then there are the details that make you smile. Guests of the Egnazia hotels will be able to go to Modena, to the showroom designed by Ron Arad, and touch with their hands the Fuoriserie and Classic departments. An immersive journey into artisanal excellence. As if Italian craftsmanship needed to be explained to those who can already afford to sleep at Borgo Egnazia. But this is how things work here: even luxury needs a narrative. Actually, especially luxury.
In the end, the clearest image remains. A car flowing on a country road in Puglia, or on a Dolomite pass, and someone inside looking at the landscape as a conscious guest. Maybe it is just a beautiful advertising campaign. Or maybe it is the attempt, a bit desperate and a bit brilliant, to remind us that in Italy beauty and movement have always been the same thing. Only, usually, we realize it when we are already stopped at the traffic light.
