Azzurro La Plata. In case you’re wondering, it’s the name Ferrari gives to this breathtaking shade of powdery baby blue adorning the new 612-horsepower Roma Spider super-convertible. 

Now driving a Ferrari, any Ferrari, guarantees endless wows, waves, and raised thumbs from fellow motorists. But a Ferrari painted Azzurro La Plata will ramp-up the adulations to an eleven. I lost count of the “Cool color, man” or “Love that blue” responses the Roma garnered. 

It’s a fact that most new Ferraris these days come out of the factory painted iconic Rosso Corsa racing red, also known as “resale red”. But a Roma Spider, in this softest of soft blues, was perfect for a recent top-down cruise from Miami’s South Beach, up the avenue they call A1A, or should I say the Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway.  

No, high speeds weren’t involved in this test drive. Nor was ten-tenths handling around a snaking race track. This was just an early-morning adventure to soak-up the spirit of the Prancing Horse, and this, the first front-engined, soft-top Ferrari to debut since the legendary Daytona Spyder was introduced in 1969. 

Since the company quietly dropped the Roma Coupe last year (there’s a new version called the Amalfi coming soon), the Spider convertible now provides the first rung on the Ferrari ownership ladder. With prices starting at $277,970 however, just don’t call it the base model. 

Here is a different kind of Ferrari than its mid-engined berlinetta brethren, the screaming, hip-high 296 and SF90 and thundering F80 supercar. No, the Roma Spider is, to my eyes, the prettiest car Ferrari currently builds, a car that’s more about la dolce vita lifestyle than ultimate performance.   

Until the Roma Spider came along, Ferrari had favored metal-roofed retractable hardtop convertibles, like the Portofino and California before it. But for some reason it decided to go retro with a five-layer canvas roof. 

Great decision. At the push of a button, the top descends in a mere 13.5 seconds, and at speeds up to 35 mph. Another button levitates a funky wind deflector over the rear seats that does a fine job of quelling in-cabin turbulence. Even at 75 mph on I-75, the Roma keeps bad-hair days in check.

Of course, folding the top lets you take-in the full acoustic wonder that’s the Roma’s twin-turbocharged 3.9-liter V8 squeezed tight under that curvy, power-domed hood. 

It packs the muscle of a team of Clydesdales, cranking out 612 horseys and 561 pound-feet of torque, an impressive 80 per cent of which is available below 1,900 rpm. 

Oomph is delivered courtesy of a rear-mounted, eight-speed dual-clutch transmission controlled automatically, or via lovely elephant-ear, carbon-fiber paddle shifters. Tap the still-weird, haptic “start” button on the steering wheel, pull back the paddle to engage first gear and the Roma slingshots away.

If you have the need for speed, a full-bore, off-the-line blast would get you from standstill to 62 mph in a heart-palpitating 3.4 seconds, and on to an equally heart-arresting 200 mph top speed.

But the Spider is content to glide along A1A with just the most sonorous of V8 burbles wafting up from that quartet of tail pipes. While neck-snapping performance is just a paddle-shift away, I loved the smooth-riding, grand-tourer vibe of this glorious roadster.

Part of the joy is down to the Roma’s laser-precise, electric-assist steering which feels like it’s hard-wired to your gray matter. Find yourself a twisty back road – hard, I know here in the Sunshine State – and the Spider simply spears around as if it’s running on invisible rails.

Inside, the cabin looks like it came straight out of a Ferragamo design studio, with its gorgeous leathers, exquisite stitching and lovely detailing. The chunky steering wheel is a delight to grip and less complex than the helm on the old Roma Coupe. That said, the rocker buttons for the turn signals never fail to irritate. 

Quibbles aside, this new Roma Spider is, without doubt, my favorite new Ferrari. I love its dual persona of elegant, refined, open-top grand tourer and super-quick, super-agile supercar. 

But then again, it had me at Azzurro La Plata. Color me smitten.