Modena, Maranello, Ferrari!!!

Of course, Modena was for my benefit! Since we were passing very closely to the Ferrari factory on our trip through Italy, I wanted to stop and see the museum (they reserve factory tours to sponsors and Ferrari owners only). So from Bologna we took a train to Modena, and a bus to the center of town. From there we were supposed to catch a bus to Maranello, the town where the factory is located, but we walked around looking for a place to eat, got a little turned around, and missed the bus.at this point we were sick of running around so much on our travels, so we decided to stay overnight in Modena and check out the factory the next day, train back to Bologna to pick up our bags at the hotel where we stored them, and train back to Florence to sightsee for a few days. So we got some info about Modena hotels and found a nice cheap one right away. We checked in, watched some winter olympics on tv, then went out for dinner. The first restaurants we came across were too expensive, so we walked around. Modena turned out to be a cuter town than we first thought! We ate pizza at a fast food joint, then walked around a bit before turning in for the night.

The next day Annie woke up early and made a special phonecall. The shutters on the window worked so well that I thought it was still maybe 6am when it was after 8! I got up and ready, and we checked out. We walked around exploring the town, and decided to catch the 2:30 bus to Maranello to see the museum at 3. It was so foggy out that we had a little trouble finding the museum, but we were there with plenty of time to explore since the museum was kind of small. I was a bit disappointed by the museum, no movies about the history of Ferrari racing and production cars, many missing models (I didn't see anything about the Berlinetta Boxer or Testarossa, among others). But at least I can say I was there (Mike!). We caught a bus back to Modena at 5, and were on the train to Bologna by 6. We got bus passes (unsuccessfully at an automatic machine at first - I lost 2 Euros!) and took the bus to the hotel where our bags were, picked up the bags and caught another bus back to the train station. We had time before the train to Florence so we grabbed some sandwiches at a bar near the station and ate while waiting for our train. We were on the train at 8:20, and in Florence almost 10pm. We walked around a good bit with our bags looking for a cheap place - the problem this time was that all the cheap places were full! But we got a nice place after the 7th try or so, and they actually had a good breakfast for us!