As we power through the pillowed hills of southern Tuscany with dust billowing in our wake, Miki Biasion suddenly recalls the night when a wild boar charged out of the undergrowth to meet its end under his wheels.

“It was right on this bend” he says, as the cappuccino-coloured crenulations of hilltop Sant Angelo in Colle come into view, beyond slopes swept with vineyards.

“Next day, the farmers who live in that house over there roasted the boar and all the rally drivers and mechanics had a fantastic meal with a lot of wine. On what other rally stage would the local people turn an unfortunate accident into a fantastic festeggiamento?”

The year was 1992 and Biasion, driving a Ford Cosworth, was practicing for the Montalcino stage of Rally Sanremo. What he is too modest to point out, is that these festivities undoubtedly came about because Miki was a super-hero to the locals - a mega-star of motor sport, having taken the World Rally Championship in 1988 and again in 1989, the year he became the first driver in history to claim three consecutive Rally Sanremo titles.

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Wine, trattorias, cypress trees and winding roads: follow World Rally Champion Miki Biasion's favourite Tuscan route

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It is a curious truth that although driving fast cars has a place in the Italian national psyche alongside fashion, food and amorous adventure, the country has spawned pretty meagre bragging rights when it comes to world-beating drivers. In fact, Miki Biasion is the country’s only motor sport champion of the last half century.

It is with this in mind, that I have arranged to meet him on home turf, to find out why he has selected Montalcino as his favourite rally stage in the world.

“It is normal that my home rally should be extra special to me, but the Montalcino stage is something way beyond that. You see, I chose to be a rally driver, rather than a racer on circuits, because the driving is on real roads through the most stunning landscapes in the world.

Some of the most spectacular stage are, for example, on the Safari Rally through the African bush in Kenya, or across the pampas in Rally Argentina” Miki explains, referring to just two of the 17 rallies where he was victorious in his career. “But the Montalcino stage is where my heart and soul are to be found”.

The stage starts at the Castiglione del Bosco estate (currently being landscaped as a golf course) on a straight stretch of gravel lined with cypresses. Miki opens the throttle of our 2.5 litre Ford road car, putting its 0-96 kmph in 6.5 second to the test are we stream through the avenue of trees.

The Tuscan sun glints through the windscreen as he enthuses: “This is almost as fast as the Escort Cosworth I used to drive in competition”. We crest the brow of a hill which, in rallying days, he used to take at 200 kmph as the springboard to a 35-metre jump.”…and it handles like a dream.”

There are one or two sweeps of asphalt, but most of the stage is still unsealed, allowing Miki to demonstrate some of the techniques which propelled him to the top of his sport. For example, at one point we slide sideway facing slightly away from the turn we are about to take, in a subtle manoeuvre known as a "Manji drift".

However, for the most part our drive is smooth and rhythmic as we churn up powdery clouds over loops of well-remembered track. I am struck with a compelling sense of a mysterious chemistry existing between driver and road, which has more to do with raw emotion than adrenaline.

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