About this car in Florence

The SS65 leaves Florence through the northern suburbs and within half an hour is climbing into the Apennines. This is the road the Mille Miglia used between Florence and Bologna, over the Futa and then the Raticosa pass, and it is the reason to choose a car like the M4 CS here. Its 550 hp straight-six and 3.4 seconds to 100 km/h matter less than how it settles into a long sequence of bends on a cool morning.

The CS is the sharp end of the M4 family, lighter and stiffer than the regular coupé, with four seats and all-wheel drive. That 4x4 is a real help on the pass, where the tarmac can stay damp under the beech trees well into the morning, and winter tyres go on in the cold months. Plan the outing for a weekday in spring or early autumn: traffic is light, the views over the Mugello open up and you can be back in town for lunch, or push on to Bologna.

In the city itself, the CS is best left alone. Everything inside the viali is a ZTL watched by cameras, so we deliver to your hotel garage if it can register the plate, to a villa in the hills, or to Firenze Peretola, Pisa Galileo Galilei or Santa Maria Novella. We fix the handover time and place as part of the booking, and the rental includes insurance plus round-the-clock assistance.

• 550 hp straight-six, 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, 302 km/h
• Made for the Futa and Raticosa passes on the SS65
• All-wheel drive and winter tyres for cool Apennine mornings