This week I'm somewhere I've dreamed of visiting my entire life - Italy! I'm here to work with a driver competing in the Ferrari Challenge World Finals at Mugello - yes, I love my job - and decided to make a little vacation of it with my wife, Louisa.
After two great days in Venice it was time to head down towards Florence. Can you say "Italian Road Trip?" Ciao, Venezia! We packed our bags, hit the 'motoscafi' to the Venice airport and grabbed our diesel wagon rental car. An Opel, to be exact, manual transmission and all.
Since we were heading South to Florence and the city of Maranello is basically the half-way point we deemed it necessary to head over to the 'motherland' of the automotive world and stop at the Ferrari Museum - or should I say, the Museo Ferrari.
We were on a bit of a tight time frame to squeeze in our little excursion but we made the most of it. What a sight it was to drive through Maranello. This being my first trip to Italy, I'm seeing things in person that I've only seen in pictures my whole life thus far. The charm in the towns, the narrow roads and the feeling of 'history'. This is where Ferrari was BORN! It was an incredible feeling to drive through town and finally reach 'Ferrari'.
The museum satisfies every Tifosi's dream under one roof; gorgeous displays of the brand's history from each era of both racing and road cars with most iconic Ferraris perfectly staged, gleaming and pristine under the lights. Engines on display by the dozen, walls showcasing all of Ferrari's racing drivers over the years, and then my favorite room - the Hall of Champions, where all of the modern-day Formula 1 cars were on display with trophies, engines, helmets, pictures with audio and videos playing of all of Ferrari's success in racing. This room said it all and instilled such an incredible feeling in me, it was amazing. You CANNOT leave that room without the sensation and realization that Ferrari is THE-MOST-INCREDIBLE brand in all of racing's history (if you were to ask me, at least).
Wow. That's all I could say. Wow.
When we left the museum we explored the town some more, catching a glimpse of the Fiorano test track's entrance and searched for Michael Schumacher's favorite restaurant, Montana's, which was sadly closed at our 4pm drive-by. On to Florence it was!
Unfortunately the sun had set shortly after we hit the road and then it rained the rest of our way down so we didn't get to see any of the beautiful country side we were hoping to see. However, we'll hopefully see that on our way back to the Venice airport next week.
Here are some pics from the Museum. I hope they leave you even half as inspired as they left us.
