Terre di Canossa to Return for 10th Edition in April


 

The 2020 rally, from April 16th through 19th,will be a pilgrimage to many medieval sites dating back to the XIIth  century, when Matilde di Canossa was ruling over central Italy.

The rally will start in Salsomaggiore Terme, near Parma, with the opening soiree in the medieval castle of Tabiano, built by the Pallavicino family in the X Century. On Friday we'll cross the Apennines to reach the UNESCO world heritage site of the Cinque Terre and the beautiful seaside village of Lerici. As usual the day will end in the best hotels of Forte dei Marmi.

Saturday we'll go south to drive on the roads of the Circuito del Montenero, that hosted the Italian Grand Prix in 1937. We will also drive on one of the most picturesque spots of the Aurelia consular road, made famous by Vittorio Gassman driving recklessly his Lancia Aurelia B24 and constantly attempting "il Sorpasso" (overtaking) in the 1962 Italian cult movie.

Sunday we'll cross the Apennines again to reach the finish line in Quattro Castella, by the Castle of Bianello, where on February 28th 1077 the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV met Pope Gregory VII to beg his forgiveness. That evening, Gregory, Henry, and Matilda of Canossa shared communion in the chapel inside the castle, signaling the official end of Henry's excommunication.

Terre di Canossa will be once again an exciting culinary itinerary combining the finest local wines, traditional cuisine and the creativity of award-winning chefs, that will culminate with the unmissable beach party in Forte dei Marmi. The rally will cover an itinerary of around 600 km and include average speed trials and challenging timed trials, also designed to avoid over-stretching older vehicles that can be tricky to manoeuvre and accommodate those competing with a trusty old mechanical chronometer. As always, the rally will be limited to a maximum of 100 cars in order to safeguard the highest standards of hospitality.

We would like to remind you that the Terre di Canossa is the only event of its kind that puts great attention on its impact on the environment. The organisers decided to adopt the CarbonZero protocol several years ago, requiring measures to be employed that can help reduce our impact on the environment, calculating the residual emissions of climate-altering gases, which are then compensated by planting trees in the Tuscan Emilian Apennine Mountains.