What is beauty?

Yep, we're starting out deep here - plunging down to the philosophical depths of true love and the after life.

Let's agree on one thing: Italy holds an undisputed mortgage on this topic. The people, the architecture, the fashion - all are universally revered.

But there is one work of art that captures the essence - the epitome, even – of beauty more than most: Michelangelo's David. More than a 5.17-metre homage to the male anatomy, this towering biblical statue of David is also recognised as a symbol of heroism and, in its home country, civil liberties.

Michelangelo is documented as saying of his creation: "I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free". Italian painter Giorgio Vasari famously put it this way: "Anyone who has seen Michelangelo's David has no need to see anything else by another sculptor, living or dead".

It was a lone tongue-in-cheek reference that a 500-year-old marble icon became the centrepiece to this week's cover story: a throw away line during a water cooler discussion in the Drive office some months ago over Italy's most beautiful piece of four-wheeled metal. Ferrari's new 488 Spider, just launched in Australia, featured heavily in the discussion.

A lot of planning and emails and even more hours on a plane later, and your humble correspondent had landed in Bologna, Italy, in search of an answer.

The quest was not over whether the 488 Spider is Italy's greatest looking export on four wheels (there's an exercise fraught with danger), but whether it stacked up against some of the greatest architecture to come from the country. It would be one that took us through spectacular mountain ranges, along spiralling roads and over stunning vistas to Carrara, a picturesque town just north of Pisa with an indelible link to Italy's most famous structures. Carrara's exquisite marble deposits mark the origins to Michelangelo's David, the Pantheon, Trajan's Column in Rome and many Renaissance-era sculptures. Its unique marble-lined mountains would be the location for our very own straw poll comparison.

Terra di motori

The journey to Carrara begins out of Ferrari's hometown in Maranello, a rural setting put on the map by the Prancing Horse but, in reality, driven economically by the more restrained trade of ceramic tiles, a business in which it thrives. The town occupies a small section of Terra di motori (land of motors), located only a short drive from the spiritual headquarters of Maserati, Ducati, Pagani and Lamborghini.

Ferrari 488 Spider. Photo: Lorenzo Marcinno

A fully-fledged operation employing some 3000 people, the Maranello Ferrari factory is open for intimate tours – the catch being you must either be a client, sponsor, special guest or, rather fortuitously, a motoring journalist.

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Having met some of the men and women who hand build engines, toil over stitching together fine leather or answer the world's press on a daily basis, we drive our Blu Corsa livery 488 Spider out of reception headed on one of the most memorable stretches of road I've ever experienced.

Driving the streets of Maranello in a Ferrari is a little like touring an Australian city in a Toyota Corolla. The Prancing Horse is everywhere as engineers regularly use the local roads to test prototypes or complete validation work. But that doesn't stop those on foot from staring enviously at our ride.

We drive past Ferrari's Fiorano test track upon exiting Maranello. The temperature gauge reads a mild 18 degrees on what I'm told is a typically foggy Spring day in the Italian town. Maybe it's the tile dust.

Headed for the hills

Italy is one of those places where you'll find a good stretch of bitumen irrespective of which direction you head.

For the purposes of this story (we had eight hours with the 488), we go straight for the national Autostrada highway network for what, judging from the road map, appears a fairly straight-forward piece of tarmac by-passing Parma, Collecchio and Pontremoli en route to Carrara.

Heading along the A1 (Autostrada del Sole) to Parma, it's then onto the A15 Autostrada della Cisa, a 108km stretch of high-speed motorway that dissects the Apennine Mountains.

Ferrari 488 Spider. Photo: Lorenzo Marcinno

The road is simply unforgettable, coiling over and cutting through the mountain range via a network of high-speed bends and tunnels. The ambient ground temperature is now a more placid 23 degrees – warm enough to stow the 488's hard top roof and listen to its new 3.9-litre twin turbo soundtrack.

On the sound: it's pretty immense. The aural signature is less shrieking howl than the old 458, the 4.5-litre naturally-aspirated V8 predecessor. The 488 naturally doesn't reach the same sky-high crescendo and rampant audible drama of the 458, partly because its rev ceiling is set at 8000rpm rather than 9000rpm. But the new, slightly-synthetic soundtrack is equally appealing. Twin turbochargers add to the excitement, huffing and whistling under acceleration.

If the chest-beating aura of the 488 was ever in question, its power credentials certainly are not. The new model boasts filliped outputs of 492kW and 760Nm, and can sprint from 0-100km/h in 3.0 seconds. Zero to 200km takes 8.7 seconds. Moreover, upshift times are reduced by 30 per cent, downshifts are reduced by 40 per cent. The numbers do not lie.

Ferrari 488 Spider. Photo: Lorenzo Marcinno

Withstanding those features, the most endearing attribute of the 488, at least initially, is its ease of use. With adaptive dampers and various driving modes tempering its immense performance, it is surprisingly easy to tame in daily driving. Some lurchiness from the dual-clutch transmission upon taking off is about the only portent to what really lurks behind the seats.

The tunnels lining much of the A1 soon become a place to test the 488's decibel count. Its seven-speed automatic is tuned to be efficient when the steering wheel-mounted manettino is set to normal, but bury your right foot and whooshka; the auto drops back three gears and you are suddenly careering towards the end of the tunnel as if you are in some type of vortex. I've never felt my face pull tight under acceleration like this before.

Away from the tunnels, the 488 simply purrs along the A1. Seventh gear at 130km/h spins the engine at a miserly 2500rpm – well before its exhaust valves open to elicit that chest-beating, turbocharged rush.

At highway speeds, the driver-centric cabin is still a place of opulence, both enamouring occupants with its rich mix of materials and sheltering them from wind with the top down.

The run into Carrara is unmistakable. Descending from the mountains into the sunnier climes of Tuscany, the impressive marble-lined hills cut a breath-taking backdrop. It's soul-stirring stuff.

A local's perspective

Located at the base of one of the world's most prized marble deposits, Carrara's population appears largely unfussed by the sheered white cliffs surrounding it – simply because the trade is so ingrained in day-to-day life.

But when a mere Ferrari drives into town, time stands still. Locals fawn over the 488 Spider, asking for photos and stopping in their tracks to catch a glimpse.

"This to me is pure beauty – bella bella," says Carrara local Luca Musetti, a part-owner of one of the town's major marble quarries, SGS Marmi.

It was the Italians who apparently coined Machiavellianism, but you'd question why upon meeting people like Luca. He speaks limited English and yet welcomes a non-Italian speaking foreigner with open arms into his expansive marble yard. He marvels at the 488 Spider before promptly inviting myself – a complete stranger – and his colleague Fabrizio to a nearby bar for a mid-afternoon espresso.

"My quarry," he begins, swilling another mouthful of delicious coffee, "we sell marble all over the world, from India, America, the Middle East and China. Even some to Australia.

"I love what I do, it makes going to work everyday very easy."

The conversation, a mix of my own stilted and heavily-limited Italian with Luca's much more proficient yet imperfect English, soon turns to beauty.

"Many say this marble is beauty, but for me, Ferrari is number one," Luca says.

"It all depends on your tastes."

The same sentiment is shared by every Carrara local we speak to during the day, be it in Luca's quarry or down by the unmistakably Tuscan marina.

David, the most famous export from Carrara, is now located down the road in Florence at the Galleria dell' Accademia, but that doesn't stop the thousands of tourists who descend on Carrara to see the marble quarries for themselves.

The blast home

It's soon time to head back up the mountains towards Maranello, where a 7pm deadline awaits.

I set the route guidance on the 488's satellite navigation away from major highways before embarking on a 170km, three-hour journey back along the Strada statale 63. The road passes through the municipality of Fivizzano before snaking back through the Apennines Mountains, crossing the border between Tuscany and Reggio Emillia en route to Casa Giannino, Cervarezza, Sassuolo and back to the factory at Maranello.

Few drives capture Italy's sheer beauty like this road, which takes in quant villages, hills dotted with old churches and horses, creek crossings and tyre squealing hairpins. The trip rises gently at first, before taking on much more dramatic scenery as you verge on the Passo del Cerreto, a 1261-metre peak overlooking the stunning ranges.

The 488's dynamic acumen is on full display during the drive, calling for equal measurements of commitment and respect. Middling revs is where the 488 really separates itself from previous rear-engined Ferraris, with explosive reserves of peak torque on hand from just 3000rpm, compared with 6000rpm on the 458.

Its telepathic turn-in response is immovable during this section of the drive. Only when the car is really pushed into a corner is there any semblance of understeer, and even then, it's hardly disconcerting.

The steering is light and on occasions the big 305/30ZR20 rear tyres struggle for traction on slippery roads and tight corners, but there are any number of systems in place to help the chassis maintain grip. The latest ESP 9.0 stability control, an electronic locking diff and the second generation of Ferrari's SSC side-slip angle algorithm are there to help.

From a purely mechanical point of view, big brakes from the La Ferrari hypercar provide excellent stopping power.

Progress is bumpy albeit controlled at such speeds with limited scuttle shake, an impressive feat on much of the pockmarked bitumen lining the incredible SS63.

What's equally impressive is the amount of traffic on the road. On one particular ribbon of bitumen, we encounter only three cars and a motorcycle.

Slipping east towards Maranello at a rapid pace, I find a spot to pull over just before the town of Bussana. The break is not out of boredom, but rather out of mechanical sympathy, as I have now been doing my utmost to torment the 488 for the best part of an hour with no respite, and its significant half-million dollar price tag has suddenly slipped back into my mind.

From the lookout perched high above the spiralling roads, the mountains in the distance form a rich green blanket that is only interrupted by the occasional bit of snow. The 488 is sitting in the background as its hot brakes begin to restore normal temperature and its engine tinks away.

If something like this can't stand up to the definition of beauty in 500 years time, then I don't know what will.

2016 Ferrari 488 Spider

On sale: Now

Price: From $526,888 plus on-road costs

Engine: 3.9-litre V8 twin-turbo

Power: 492kW at 8000rpm

Torque: 760Nm at 3000rpm

Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual, rear-wheel drive

Fuel use: 11.4L/100km

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Interested in buying Ferrari 458 Spider? Visit our Ferrari showroom for more information.

Interested in buying Ferrari 488 Spider? Visit our Ferrari showroom for more information.