Excited to be in Italy and looking forward to being a judge for the inaugural Anantara Concorso Roma in 2025 and no less to be staying at the impeccable Hotel Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Roma, my excitement was quashed as I waited to board a tourist boat in Positano. The phone call was from the inestimable Chief Judge Adolfo Orsi, and I knew what he was going to say. The event would have to be postponed due to the passing of Pope Francis a few days earlier. There was just no way that any event car, sporting, touristic, or whatever, would be able to happen on the same day that the funeral service at St Peter’s Basilica and the procession to His Eminence’s final resting place and internment in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. There are, after all, more important things than motor cars.
Disappointed of course, but understanding the rationale, I was somewhat buoyed by the opportunity to stay in the Eternal City at such an auspicious time and at such a marvellous grand hotel even if I would not be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first ever concorso d’eleganza in Rome, and after an absence of 65 years since the last one.
But as one door closes, another opens and at the same time as Franciscvs was being laid to rest I was in another part of Rome with an invitation to visit The NB Center, the collection of Nicola Bulgari, the 84 year old billionaire businessman whose great grandfather, Sotirios Bulgari, founded the eponymous jewellery company of which he is now Vice Chairman.
The NB Center for American Automotive Heritage, as it says on the label, is for cars from the USA. As well as the collection in Rome there is even more in Sarteano near Sienna, and lots lots more in Allentown not far from Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Despite the enormous collection consisting wholly of American cars, this being Rome there was an Italian twist, after all, all roads lead to Roma Caput Mundi, the capital of the world. So, as the late Pope’s coffin was being transported to Santa Maria Maggiore in the white Dodge Ram popemobile registration SCV1 that Mexico had gifted to the Vatican in 2017 after Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico, I was looking at 12 other amazing American cars carrying SCV (the Latin, Status Civitatis Vaticanae or Vatican City State which became independent from Italy in 1929) registration in the Bulgari collection.
And those number plates were all in red letters and numerals indicating that they were the cars of various Popes and Cardinals with the lower the number the greater the importance. What is more I had never realised until this moment that many of these Papal cars were American. I had naively assumed that Popes would have used, like high-ranking Italian government officials some stretched and modified Lancia, like the four Flaminia 335 ‘Presidenziale’ designed by Pinin Farina built in 1960/61, two of which still operate on State occasions. But no, the Vatican State is independent, so not much Italian machinery even if it is smack bang in the centre of the Italian capital, but plenty of Mercedes-Benz popemobiles carrying S.C.V.-1, and plenty of American limousines such as those in the NB Center.
As Nicola himself says, “In Italy, I grew up seeing an enormous number of American automobiles. Why? Because in Italy we produced either cheap Fiats or very expensive, very highly engineered cars, and there was nothing in between that was so reliable, well-bult and affordable. All the embassies had American cars, and the Vatican ran a fleet of American limousines, some of which we now own.”
If only the Vatican fleet now under the auspices of Sig. Bulgari could talk, what tales they would be able tell. SCV 16, the 1938 Buick Limited Series 90L carried Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax in January 1939 when the British delegation visited Pope Pius XI to discuss the threat of impending war upon the Catholic Church, as did SCV11 a 1938 Cadillac Series 75 Imperial, which was later used in 1958 when the Ambassador of Ethiopia visited the Vatican ; the oldest car in the collection is the 1932 Buick limousine also used by visiting dignitaries; SCV 15 was the second Buick Limited Series 90L purchased by the Vatican in 1938 whilst the second 1938 Cadillac Series 75 Imperial, SCV 14 was used for the airport run to the Giovan Battista Pastine International in Ciampino as when the Finnish Delegation paid a visit during WW2; SCV 23 a 1947 Packard Custom Super Clipper was often used as an escort vehicle when the Pope was travelling in SCV1, whilst a 1948 Packard Custom Eight, SCV 411 was the mode of transport for the Secretary of the Congregation of the Holy Office, Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo; SCV12 a 1949 Cadillac Series 75 Imperial transported both the Bolivian President Victor Paz Estensorro in 1953 and five years later Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia.
One of just eleven Cadillac Series 90 Town Cars built, the 1938 example in the Bulgari collection was sold new to its first owner the French Countess Rosario Julia Schiffner de Larrechea in Alexandria, Egypt. Upon her death it was passed to her confidant the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Francis Spellman who sent it to the Vatican where he used it when visiting and when Piius XII did not need it. Very rare and having covered just 34,000 miles the 185 hp 431 cubic inch V16 engine has had an easy life.
The most important car in this collection within a collection though is the 1947 Cadillac Series 75 Imperial Sedan which has a stately seven-seater body created by the Derham Custom Body Company and became the personal vehicle of not only Pope Pius XII but also his successor John XXIII. Rather less opulent but very interesting was the newest automobile in the collection. SCV 13 which was used to chauffeur amongst others the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ambassador of Ecuador was a marque I had previously little knowledge of – a 1965 Checker Marathon Town Custom Limousine powered by a Chevy V8. Perhaps more famous for manufacturing taxis this Checker was purchased during a period of restraint although it is upholstered in silver leather!
As for Francisvs, a Pope for the people, he apparently liked to drive an old Renault 4 when he had the opportunity to get behind the wheel. I wrote this as the Cardinals sat in conclave to choose his replacement. Fortunately, the Vatican cars in the Bulgari collection are so well maintained they only emit white and never black smoke.
The incumbent Pope, Leo XIV is apparently also a car enthusiast as is evidenced by a new exhibition entitled A century of the Popemobile which opened on 29th October. Housed in a glass-fronted exhibition pavilion in the area of the Square Garden, near the Pavilion of Carriages and the Vatican Pinacoteca, at the Vatican in Rome the exhibition runs until 28th January 2027.
