Alfa Romeo 8C Zagato

The Alfa Romeo 8C name was used by the Italian automaker for a range of road, race, and sports cars throughout the 1930s. The 8C name designated the straight-8 cylinder engine created by Vittorio Jano as Alfa's primary racing engine from 1931 to 1939. The first car to bear the 8C name was the 1981 8C 2300, much like the one pictured here, where the 2300 referenced the engine's 2.3 L displacement. The chassis were given to numerous coach-builders such as Zagato and Carrozzeria Pinin Farina among others for them to fit their own bodies on, thus giving birth to many different versions of the same car. A racing version of the 8C 2300 won the 1931 and 1932 Targa Florio race in Sicily while driven by Tazio Nuvolari. It also won the 1931 Italian Grand Prix victory at Monza.

This illustration was hand drawn on paper based on a rolling shot of an 8C 2300 Zagato in front of Villa d'Este, one of the many esteemed villas built around the shores of Lake Como, during the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. The drawing was then digitally illustrated and printed on large and luxurious museum-quality paper .

Villa d'Este was originally named Villa del Garovo and was founded as a female convent in 1442 by Gerardo Landriani, Bishop of Como. A century later, Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio demolished the nunnery and turned it into a summer residence for himself. In 1815, it became the residence of Caroline of Brunswick who renamed it to Nuova Villa d'Este. It was converted into a deluxe hotel for nobility and the rich in 1873, a status it retains to this day. The Villa is best known for its garden, or "park all'Italiana", that was created by the Milanese Calderari family who undertook a major restoration project of the Villa in 1784.

The Concorso in question was established in 1929 as the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este before being indefinitely postponed in 1951 due to the crisis affecting the coachbuilding industry and thus the limited numbers of cars that would have been available for the show. It was revived in 1986 and once more in 1995, 1996, and 1997. In 1999, the BMW Group took note of the event and officially revived it alongside the Villa d'Este hotel. Since 2011, the Concorso has taken place in the second half of May and host cars built from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Lake Como itself is the third-largest lake in Italy and houses numerous villas and resorts. It has been a famous vacation spot for the wealthy and aristocrats of the world since Roman times, with many celebrities claiming homes along its shores. The Sacro Monte di Ossuccio ("Holy Mount of Ossuccio"), one of nine Italian holy sites of Christianity known as "Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy", is also located along the western edge of Lake Como. The site is dedicated to the Coronation of the Virgin and was added by UNESCO to the World Heritage List in 2003.