Bologna, Modena and Ferrari factory

Badger
Dec 8, 2017
3 min read

Updated: Aug 10, 2018

Already being in Europe, I wanted to head down to Bologna and Modena to see a good friend from college who works and lives there.

With my original flight being canceled into Bologna due to weather in Amsterdam, it was a mad dash to find an alternate flight and managed to fly into Venice. A beautiful sunset before descent.

Quite wet when we pulled up, thankfully to a real gate and not stand.

My bag was one of the first off and I quickly got a taxi before the rest of the crowd and headed to the train. Luckily everything was on time and in not too much time, was in Bologna with my friend.

After dropping my bags at his place, we headed out to grab dinner. Luckily the rain stopped and could enjoy the great Xmas lights.

They had just put the tree up and it was a fantastic sight.

One of the plazas and churches. Interestingly, the church had only part of the more decorative facade put up.

Off to dinner we went and had a fantastic meal.

The next morning it was off to Maranello to go on a tour of the Ferrari factory and check out the museum.

The main admin building.

The paint shop.

The wind tunnel.

Then over to check out Fiorano the famous private test track.

The famous Enzo house.

After the tour, it was lunchtime and we headed to one of my friend's favorite restaurants, Ristorante de Pasticcino.

Back at the Ferrari museum, we got a huge chuckle when we parked and saw this on the car in front of us - yes even in the middle of Ferrari town...

The entrance to the Ferrari museum.

What a beautiful V12

So many historic and gorgeous F1 cars with great access.

Keep fighting Michael!

True history and legacy!

Amazing collection of trophies!

It never got much love, but the F50 is such a cool car.

And of course we had to turn a couple laps on the simulator before leaving.

What a fantastic museum, I've been to several others and this one is one of the best. The access to not only road cars, but especially F1 cars is so special.

Then off to downtown Modena for dinner.

Osteria Francescana, someday I might get lucky and score a reservation, but today was not that day.

The decorations were festive and beautiful.

After working up an appetite, it was time to get some Piedmontese beef.

Look at those bad boys, dry aged and ready to go.

They literally come out sizzling.

One was plain salt and the other with rosemary. They were both stunning and the flavor of the Chianina is unlike any other breed. Stunning!

After a great dinner, we headed back to Bologna for drinks at a bar and to bed.

The next day we were originally going to head up to Milan to explore and then I'd fly to LHR and back home. Unfortunately LHR had a dusting of snow which caused massive cancellations. BA said if I routed through Budapest, I could probably make it. So started the mad dash to MXP, but thanks to snow in Italy, our drive would have meant I missed my flight, so we found a train station for me to hop on. Got to downtown Milan and these pictures, then took a taxi to MXP and hopped on the flight to BUD.