Italy - Modena
Discussion
Thought it might help a few with some up to date information about Modena and motor valley, we just got back from 4 days in Italy with the kids who love cars as much as I do, and a very understanding wife!
What started as a plan to do our own “Race Across the World” trip in half term, I looked for cheap flights for an outbound and work our way back by train. It was cheap to Milan, and with the lakes looking both very wet and things closing down for winter we had a plan to get to Modena. Now, Bologna is much closer for this, if you can, fly there!
Trains from Milan are fast, however we picked up a hire car (Hertz) to drive down. First car, a newish 500x had an engine warning light on, so we ended up in a Lynk & Co hybrid, based on an xc40. Anyway, drive down was easy enough, we stayed in an Airbnb near Modena town centre.
If in Modena, book restaurants. We didn’t the first night and while we ended up with a great meal, was a tad fraught as a lot of good ones are closed on a Monday.
Tuesday - walked around Modena which is lovely, before walking to the Enzo Ferrari museum - Ferrari have two museums, one in Modena in Enzos childhood home and one at Maranello. You can pre book tickets online for both as a joint ticket. Both Ferrari museums aren’t that interactive, lots of amazing cars though, Enzo museum is a lot of the early cars ( LOT of 250 variants, no bad thing!) and a big focus on engines. There is a GT based sim there, you can pre book but it was quiet when we went so you could book while there.
In the afternoon I’d pre booked a Pagani factory tour. This was a massive highlight, with the guide being amazing. They walk you very quickly through the museum then into the factory, then you can go back round the museum yourself afterwards. Our tour was 3:30 and we left at 5. You can’t take photos in the factory but it was amazing to see and we saw Horracio, giving people a wave. Saw a new Utopia ragging it up the street too!
Just on logistics - Pagani, Maranello and Lamborghini could all be done in a day if the factory tours lined up. Sadly for us, they didn’t and due to the 1st November being a public holiday we couldn’t get in one at Lamborghini. There are companies who will drive your around the tours, this may well be a good option but they looked quite expensive when we already had a car.
Day three was up early and out to Maranello, then over to Lambghini for 1pm. This is not an optimal way of doing it as they’re about 40 minutes apart, but we wanted to get to Ferrari early. Museum is more initially focussed on the super cars, with all the recent hyper cars on display before moving into race cars. The F1 room was great but wish there was more detail on the trophies as they are higher up so difficult to work out what’s what. The SIM setup there is good, if it was busy I’d prebook. It’s at the end of the museum so give yourself time first! Lots of places to drive a Ferrari outside the museum, 100 euro for 10 minutes etc. again, can be pre booked, we didn’t.
You can do tours of the site and Fiorano but we just drove around to see it, as it was a public holiday nothing was happening on track or the factory.
Lamborghini is a bit different. The cars were immaculately presented, all early stuff downstairs and modern stuff upstairs. The LM002 was in amazing condition. While again, very much not a lot else other than a white room overlooking an industrial estate, the cars were amazing to see. Small SIM room there, setup uses an Avantedor race seat which the kids liked. It’s small, without the factory tour you could be done there in 30 minutes. Sadly when I went to book the tour there were only 2 spaces left and there were 4 of us. Mind you, factory wasn’t running so not sure what they saw!
Then a 2 hour drive back to Milan for a couple of days to finish. Dropped the car at Milan central station, was easy enough to do but was a public holiday so quieter roads.
We kind of winged it a bit, I do wish we’d pre booked a bit more, and known before we booked flight it was a public holiday! Outside of Milan, museums etc all open but not all shops and restaurants were - not the case so much in the middle of Milan where everything was open.
It was a well worth a trip and we all loved it. As a child growing up in Scotland, I never in a million years thought I’d be able to go and see these things so wa pretty special. Some people would hammer the museums for just a bunch of cars sitting about - I quite liked it for that.
Anyway, might help someone plan their trip, so this write up is for you.
What started as a plan to do our own “Race Across the World” trip in half term, I looked for cheap flights for an outbound and work our way back by train. It was cheap to Milan, and with the lakes looking both very wet and things closing down for winter we had a plan to get to Modena. Now, Bologna is much closer for this, if you can, fly there!
Trains from Milan are fast, however we picked up a hire car (Hertz) to drive down. First car, a newish 500x had an engine warning light on, so we ended up in a Lynk & Co hybrid, based on an xc40. Anyway, drive down was easy enough, we stayed in an Airbnb near Modena town centre.
If in Modena, book restaurants. We didn’t the first night and while we ended up with a great meal, was a tad fraught as a lot of good ones are closed on a Monday.
Tuesday - walked around Modena which is lovely, before walking to the Enzo Ferrari museum - Ferrari have two museums, one in Modena in Enzos childhood home and one at Maranello. You can pre book tickets online for both as a joint ticket. Both Ferrari museums aren’t that interactive, lots of amazing cars though, Enzo museum is a lot of the early cars ( LOT of 250 variants, no bad thing!) and a big focus on engines. There is a GT based sim there, you can pre book but it was quiet when we went so you could book while there.
In the afternoon I’d pre booked a Pagani factory tour. This was a massive highlight, with the guide being amazing. They walk you very quickly through the museum then into the factory, then you can go back round the museum yourself afterwards. Our tour was 3:30 and we left at 5. You can’t take photos in the factory but it was amazing to see and we saw Horracio, giving people a wave. Saw a new Utopia ragging it up the street too!
Just on logistics - Pagani, Maranello and Lamborghini could all be done in a day if the factory tours lined up. Sadly for us, they didn’t and due to the 1st November being a public holiday we couldn’t get in one at Lamborghini. There are companies who will drive your around the tours, this may well be a good option but they looked quite expensive when we already had a car.
Day three was up early and out to Maranello, then over to Lambghini for 1pm. This is not an optimal way of doing it as they’re about 40 minutes apart, but we wanted to get to Ferrari early. Museum is more initially focussed on the super cars, with all the recent hyper cars on display before moving into race cars. The F1 room was great but wish there was more detail on the trophies as they are higher up so difficult to work out what’s what. The SIM setup there is good, if it was busy I’d prebook. It’s at the end of the museum so give yourself time first! Lots of places to drive a Ferrari outside the museum, 100 euro for 10 minutes etc. again, can be pre booked, we didn’t.
You can do tours of the site and Fiorano but we just drove around to see it, as it was a public holiday nothing was happening on track or the factory.
Lamborghini is a bit different. The cars were immaculately presented, all early stuff downstairs and modern stuff upstairs. The LM002 was in amazing condition. While again, very much not a lot else other than a white room overlooking an industrial estate, the cars were amazing to see. Small SIM room there, setup uses an Avantedor race seat which the kids liked. It’s small, without the factory tour you could be done there in 30 minutes. Sadly when I went to book the tour there were only 2 spaces left and there were 4 of us. Mind you, factory wasn’t running so not sure what they saw!
Then a 2 hour drive back to Milan for a couple of days to finish. Dropped the car at Milan central station, was easy enough to do but was a public holiday so quieter roads.
We kind of winged it a bit, I do wish we’d pre booked a bit more, and known before we booked flight it was a public holiday! Outside of Milan, museums etc all open but not all shops and restaurants were - not the case so much in the middle of Milan where everything was open.
It was a well worth a trip and we all loved it. As a child growing up in Scotland, I never in a million years thought I’d be able to go and see these things so wa pretty special. Some people would hammer the museums for just a bunch of cars sitting about - I quite liked it for that.
Anyway, might help someone plan their trip, so this write up is for you.
We had 4 days based in Bologna a month ago and did the Ferrari museums. Just to add that if you do both museums on the same day you can buy a shuttle ticket to bus you between Modena and Maranello.
From the Maranello museum its only a short walk to the original factory gates, not that you can see much!
Our plans to visit Lamborghini were scuppered as there was a bus strike on.
Also note, many museums etc do not open on a Monday.
From the Maranello museum its only a short walk to the original factory gates, not that you can see much!
Our plans to visit Lamborghini were scuppered as there was a bus strike on.
Also note, many museums etc do not open on a Monday.
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