The weekend of June 26th, 2010, was one to remember for Alfisti. A group of over 2,600 Alfa Romeos from all around Europe blocked the road that leads to the Fieramilano business park in Rho, Italy, a quiet suburb that lies just a few minutes north of Milan. Although Alfa no longer builds cars in Milan, the automaker returned to its native city to celebrate its 100th birthday.

Once inside Fieramilano, participants who didn’t have something broken to mend were invited to spend the morning socializing with other Alfa owners while walking around the vast parking lot to admire the cars on display. Almost every kind of Alfa ever built was present, from pre-war racers to Colli-built Giulia wagons, from the iconic 115-Series GTV to the then-new Giulietta hatchback and everything in between. More obscure models such as the boxy 90 from the 1980s and the Matta off-roader from the 1950s were not left out and we even spotted a couple of base-model 75 sedans, sold exclusively with a V6 under the Milano moniker in the United States.

The cars were registered in countries located all around Europe and a majority of them were driven to the event rather than towed or shipped. That said, not all of them got to northern Italy unscathed; mechanical issues were not unheard of and a Dutch man told us that he got into a minor fender bender with his rare Romeo 2 van about an hour away from the Swiss border.

After the gathering was over, Alfisti drove to downtown Milan and created an impromptu car show as they went out to grab a bite to eat. The city’s police force closed off several streets to accommodate the cars which enabled pedestrians to walk through the largest collection of Alfas ever displayed in a single location.