The spider is a strange vehicle. Impossible as it may seem, it’s been possible to join together every imaginable negative characteristic of various modes of transportation in a single car. It has the usual defects of a traditional automobile: as awkward to park, as it is to drive in traffic; expensive to buy, expensive to run and downright dangerous. The spider is also heir to all of the disadvantages of a motorcycle. The driver is constantly subjected to exhaust fumes and the whole array of sundry pollens. The lovely little two-seater has only minimal storage…and the list goes on. OK, granted, as a means of transport, it just shouldn’t exist.

And yet, the spider continues to represent the very expensive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for many people: It remains the jewel in the crown of most auto manufactures throughout the world. As the saying goes, "the difference between the men and the boys is the cost of their playthings."

The convertible is a symbol of 1950s Hollywood and its divas breezing down the Gran Corniche in Montecarlo with a fluttering scarf and dark glasses. It conjures up an image of dandies of the David Niven school cruising Rome’s via Veneto. A central prop in a De Sica film which remains, whether old flame or new, whether deluxe or plain old cabrio, quite simply a thrill.

The Italian automobile industry has always been at the top; the spider’s design is another example of that tradition. Who wouldn’t like to spend a summer afternoon behind the wheel of an old Ferrari Dino Spyder designed by Pininfarina? Who wouldn’t like to sit for just a minute in the legendary Giulia Sprint driven by Vittorio Gasmann in Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso (The Easy Life, 1962)?