Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata (b. 1938 in Venice) was an automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 racing manager. He inherited a fortune, at the age of 24, from his father, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata

Giuseppe Volpi

Giuseppe Volpi, 1st Count of Misurata was an Italian businessman and politician....

, a politician financier and founder of the renowned Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

.

Giovanni Volpi started a racing team, Scuderia Serenissima

Scuderia Serenissima

Scuderia Serenissima was a successful auto racing team in the early 1960s. Funded by Giovanni Volpi, Serenissima used Ferraris to much success until the founder financed the exiled Ferrari company, ATS...

, and quickly became one of Ferrari

Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

's best customers. Following the great walkout, Volpi felt the wrath of Enzo Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari

Enzo Anselmo Ferrari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer...

 who refused to sell him the two 250 GTO

Ferrari 250 GTO

The Ferrari 250 GTO is a GT car which was produced by Ferrari from 1962 to 1964 for homologation into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring Car category....

s he requested. Volpi aligned himself with ATS

Automobili Turismo e Sport

ATS was an Italian automotive constructor and racing team that operated between 1963 and 1965, formed after the famous "Palace Revolution" at Ferrari....

, providing the financing for the ex-Ferrari company.

During World War II, Giovanni Volpi's father served in Mussolini's cabinet as the minister of Finance and one of his chief advisors. He designed several of Mussolini's austerity measures and escaped prosecution after the war. His father also acquired and restored Villa Barbaro

Villa Barbaro

Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...

 at Maser, Italy

Maser, Italy

Maser is a comune in the Province of Treviso in the Italian region Veneto, located about 50 km northwest of Venice and about 25 km northwest of Treviso...

, built originally for the Barbaro family.