The Artery of Modernity: Piero Puricelli, Autostradale, and the World’s First Motorway, 1924

Before 1924, intercity road travel in northern Italy was a dusty, jolting ordeal over unpaved carriage tracks crowded with oxcarts and livestock. The opening of the Autostrada dei Laghi—featuring grade-separated crossings, banked curves, and smooth tar-macadam surfaces—created a demand for scheduled public transport that could match private sports cars for speed. Autostradale commissioned custom coachbuilders like Zagato and Macchi to body heavy Fiat and Lancia chassis into streamlined parlor cars equipped with plush velvet seats, luggage racks, and panoramic glass windows.

Operating initially from central terminals near Piazza Duomo and Piazza Castello, Autostradale whisked Milanese professionals and vacationers to the shores of Lake Maggiore and the Alpine foothills in under an hour, cutting transit times by more than half compared to steam trains.

Throughout the 20th century, Autostradale expanded from an Alpine excursion line into Italy’s primary airport connection and express highway carrier, seamlessly linking Malpensa, Linate, and Orio al Serio with the metropolitan heart of Milan.

Today, the company preserves historical fleet registers, early enamel route signage, and vintage timetable broadsheets in its archives, standing as living testimony to the September day in 1924 when Italian engineering showed the world how high-speed highway mobility was done.