‘Hollywood on the Lake’ draws thousands of car lovers to see world’s rarest cars

While car lovers and manufacturers confront a robot-driven electric future that will change transport forever, thousands gathered on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como to celebrate the best of what has come since the creation of the internal combustion engine about a century ago.

The theme for this year’s three-day Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este show, which ended on Sunday, was Hollywood on the Lake, featuring 51 of the world’s most desirable cars and – for the only the eighth time – 30 classic motorcycles.

The show was first staged in 1929, just before the great Wall Street crash, to showcase Europe’s storied coachbuilders.

The Lake Como show, about an hour north of Milan, is one of the three highlights on the classic-car circuit each year and the only one in Europe.