My son and I did the Ferrari museums just before Christmas last year. Both were very good. Not huge but well laid out with lots of stuff, plus info in English which helped. The factory tour was ok, but you have to stay in the bus.

Sounds like you’ve a fairly full itinerary – if you do however find yourself with a couple of hours to spare, the Panini Motor Museum is amazing – it’s in the middle of a dairy farm outside Modena & has the most amazing collection of vintage sportscars (mainly Maserati) & memorabilia i’ve ever seen – even in random pics on the tinternet.

It looks like this – there’s a Maserati Chubasco upstairs too…

FWIW Maranello and Ducatti are in easy commute of each other but the latter is not far from the centre of Bologna (or was last time I was there) and so you’d want to pick and choose to avoid commute traffic.

The Ducati tour and museum is brilliant, pretty cheap too I seem to remember it was only 12Euros. Bolonga is not the best place to stay though.

We rode over from there to Maranello and stayed in the Ferrari hotel. To be honest its more like a Travel lodge than anything posh. Cheap though 🙂

But can’t recommend the Ducati factory your and museum enough !!!

I can’t believe someone thinks you can buy & sell and Aston for the same price after owning a month

I have a 911 turbo for high days and holidays and, last month, went to the Porsche Experience Centre at Silverstone and paid about £300 for 90 mins of track time and tuition in their “cooking” 911. Anyone can book this – you don’t have to be a Porsche customer – and TBH it set me thinking that for not much more than the price of annual road tax, it might be better to sell the car and do a couple of these each year.

@digga I was enjoying this post right upto the last part !

weeksy – Member

That’s RIGHT up there in terms of crazy insane ideas that is…

Why?

I’ve actually done this a few times, though admittedly not with an Aston, but the principle’s the same.

bologna, lovely place. Enjoy yourself.

oh yes, and all along the road by the museum are garages renting out Ferrari, with people dragging you in to sign up.
If you’ve ever been to Cambridge it’s the same as the punt operators looking for custom.

It must be just me that thinks £400 for an hour pootling in a Ferrari is bonkers ?

Once in a lifetime experience for many people. Fulfilling lifelong dreams. I’m the tightest person going, but I’d be tempted. Hell of a lot less commitment than owning one!

There will be a hefty deposit – I hired a classic Alfa in Italy, probably worth around 30k and the excess was 3k. Typically supercar hire places want 10-20k excess, and will want to see that you’ve got the cash / take a swipe of a credit card.

I’d personally go for a classic – when you’re in a hired motor that costs as much as a house, with a big excess, you don’t tend to go bonkers with the loud pedal.

Is it just me that’s fed up that she’s only going to be 40?
That’s just whipper snapper age and she should really be driving a Nissan Micra or something else with a black box and cheaper insurance.

So, onto phase 2 then guys…

I need a Gite/house, somewhere quiet, tranquil and nice, ideally with a pool, but if not it’s kinda OK. Somewhere within 100 miles ideally of Bologna.

Plan B if we can’t find anything is to make it into a bit of an adventure which would look a bit like this.

Day 1. Drive to Folkstone, train to France, drive to Riemes (or nearby).
Day 2. Drive to Geneva
Day 3. Drive to Bologna/Maranello
Day 4. Ferrari day and museum
Day 5. Ducati factory tour, maybe MotoGuzzi too, drive to Morzine.
Day 6. Chill in Morzine
Day 7. Drive to Burgundy.
7-14. Holiday home in Burgundy.
14, drive back home.

Is day 4 both Ferrari museums?

There are much much much nicer places than Morzine in the Alps!

Rich, I don’t know. Neither of us are into cars as such so it’s more for our 8 year old. Just thought it would be an idea as we’re local.

Dunc, elaborate please. Ideally with pool/somewhere for the boy to have fun etc.

Back to the cars .

can you fit in a trip to the Alfa Romeo museum in Milan ?

Are the 4c and *c available to hire as alternative ?

Not sure Milan is really for us with a small child. Especially was we’d be driving too. Been there twice flying and liked it, not sure I’d want to drive.

I have no idea what them cars are lol.

That should say 8C

The museum in Modena has mostly road cars, plus lots of engines (which we found interesting). Mostly in a new building that’s pretty impressive.
Maranello is mostly racing cars, with some road as well. It’s about a 30 minute drive from one to the other, or you can book a bus.

I did a track day for my 30th and drove a 458, DB9 and Atom – in that order, which kind of spoilt the DB9.

It was like driving a tanker compared to the 458. Unresponsive, heavy, slow… (relatively)

The two cars are totally incomparable – take the 458.

Not sure Milan is really for us with a small child. Especially was we’d be driving too. Been there twice flying and liked it, not sure I’d want to drive.

Junior cycled from Paris to Berlin at 7 and loved the city (well the McDo’s, curry wurste rowing a boat on the Spree bits at least).

Choose an interesting route and driving there could be the most interesting part of the holiday. More interesting than driving an unfamiliar, idiosyncratic, lh-drive car for an hour.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ov3xVx8qls[/video]

Potential plan change, which would involve heading to for exampler Verbier on the way back and then stopping there.

https://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/verbier/675134

The only downside of the plan is possible weather issues compared to the Italian coast.. But the plus side is that me and my young lad will have more stuff to do whilst Mrs Weeksy sits by a pool/balcony etc.

Moving back into this thread then as it’s now getting time for booking/planning.

We’re onto the debate of “what’s the plan after Maranello/Bologna.

Do we go west to the coast, do we go east to the coast, do we go north to Como. Some ideas/thoughts around Como, Lecco, Varenna, Locarno would be most appreciated. I’d imagine a few of you guys have frequented these sorts of place. Ideally somewhere to sit in the sun for Mrs Weeksy, something interesting to do for me and my lad for a day or two.