Ducati and Ferrari

Yesterday we drove to a suburb of Bologna called Pangiare (Ducati enthusiasts will recognize that name) and toured the Ducati motorcycle factory. Ducati is an elite and famous type of racing and also touring bike, and has been around since the 40's. We toured both the museum and the actual factory, and personally as someone who could care less about motorcycles, even I found it all pretty interesting. The history of the motorcycle plus the sport of racing plus the evolution of the engineering was a lot more fascinating than I'd expected; for Steve it was just plain awesome. Ducati only puts winning bikes in their museum, and I enjoyed seeing a bike that won the Paris-Dakar rally and that part of the display- not many people have had the chance to see the race in person, in West Africa- before they moved it for security reasons. Griffin liked the display of the "cucciolo" which is "puppy" in Italian, for an early gasoline-powered bike made from about 1946-1958. I've never been that in to poster art, but I wouldn't mind one of those old adverts! (In case you're interested, Air Afrique is another one I've always wanted).

http://www.enjoyart.com/single_posters/motorcycles_scooters/Ducati-Cucciolo-Art-Print.htm

We spent the afternoon back in Bologna with Lynne and the kids. We took the kids to a nearby park to ride their bikes. Griffin borrowed one of their bikes and practiced riding on two wheels just like his cousins. They pretty much could have told him to ride off a bridge and he'd have done it! Rylee gave him a silly band bracelet and he's refused to take it off for two days and counting. 

This morning we got up early and took the train to Modena, a town about 25 mins outside of Bologna. From there we caught a shuttle bus to Maranello, the town where Ferrari is located! The Ferrari museum showcases the history of the Ferrari brand plus all the world champion racers. It also had a special exhibition of 60 years in the American market called "California Dreamin" which was fun and included a cool display plus movie clips of all the movies in which Ferraris have been featured. Remember Ferris Buehler's friend Cameron's dad's car? Oh yeah. 

We took a bus tour through the grounds of the Ferrari factory and through the secret Ferrari test driving track. We weren't allowed off the bus and couldn't take photos in the factory or track area. Did you know every Ferrari is 100% custom made to order, made by hand individually and can take 1-2 years to arrive? According to our tour guide, sales were up a lot last year and the Ferrari management decided they were selling too many cars- too many doesn't uphold the elite nature of the Ferrari, so they cut back production this year. Lots of interesting factoids.  We also bought Steve a ticket for the real F1 simulator which is supposedly the closest you can come to driving a real one without actually driving one! He is hoping that a driving scout will call him any day now to start race car driving school so he can begin his new career...

Griffin practically fell asleep in my arms walking out from the shuttle stop back in Modena so we sat at a cafe and he took a nap on my lap for almost an hour- something he never, ever does! We wore him out! After he woke with a second wind and we'd taken out a couple of coffees and a glass of wine each, we spent a couple hours wandering around pretty Modena before taking the train back to Bologna. (Again, apologies that I just have a few IPhone pics bc most are still on the other camera).