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In terms of ultimate car manufacturers it would be cool to say something interesting along the lines of "MooSPEED's favourite is Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Maserati or perhaps even Frazer Nash"

But no, in common with the majority, including disinterested dunderheads , we keep coming back to Ferrari. There is just something about the prancing horse, a combination of factors; exquisite styling, the noise, the performance, la passione. Even the questionable tactics in F1 haven't dampened the enthusiasm for road cars.

MooSPEED just had to pay a visit to the home of Ferrari, Maranello - not a question of "if" but "when". As luck would have it a necessary business trip to Milan in Feb 2001 had to be extended over the weekend - lucky wasn't it ? Strange how Saturday's work only took 10 minutes as well

First thing was to pick up the hire car, a 1.2 clio, and hit the mental roads of Milan. Luckily it was easy enough to escape and foot down on the autostrada.
The foot didn't lift until Modena, the closest turn off for Maranello - average speed ? don't know but the poor old hire car was relieved for me to get onto country roads. Couldn't have been better trying to find Ferrari as I happened to be following a 355 down the lanes, was fine until he decided to overtake the traffic and leave me for dust. Two of the cars in front of him dutifully waved him by, thing is one of them was a police car !! I like this part of the world, in the UK the most he'd get would be a two finger salute.

Maranello is an industrial village, it looked a bit grim on the day that I went due to the miserable weather. Reminded me a bit of a Yorkshire ex-mining village apart from the fact that within a mile of the factory there are red flags, signs and shop windows all proudly displaying the prancing horse. Been to Blackpool recently ? I can't remember seeing TVR regalia hanging from every street corner...

Unfortunately my timing was a bit bad as the Ferrari museum, La Galleria had just closed for lunch. Having studied the maps beforehand I'd decided to try and fit in a couple of visits to race tracks. Although not a race track as such I thought I'd try and find Ferrari's test track at Fiorana. I drove around for about an hour trying to find it, turned out it was literally just up the road from Maranello - must've driven straight passed it !! No testing today, more's the pity. I found out that Barrichello had been testing for the F1 just a couple of days later.

I still had time before the museum opened to checkout the factory. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but all there is to see is the factory gates controlled by a security guard in reception. The factory buildings behind the gates look inticingly interesting but without driving a van carrying expensive car parts there's no way in.
I think they do organized tours during the week. For me I had to be satisfied with having a look at the world championship winning F1 car in reception. The guard was surprisingly tolerant allowing me to poke and prod around the car - wasn't allowed to sit in it unfortunately

Whilst having a look around one of the many Ferrari shops I heard a familiar engine scream past outside and a brief flash of red. A few minutes later the engine could be heard again, this time it was pulling up outside. Suddenly the shop emptied of everyone that wasn't at the till - we had all collected outside to see a 360 which was very low, quite dirty and ticking away to itself quite happily. By the look of the bugs splattered into lines up the bonnet rather than splats and from the heat being blown out the back by the fans I'd guessed this was that was bought for go rather than show. In Britain, Ferraris seem to be bought to take part in the ownership experience - to always be shiny and maybe the occasional blast. In Italy it's against the law to have a Ferrari/Lamborghini/Pagini and to not give it some welly on an open road

Back to the museum and had only a short time to fit everything in, you could spend a good 3 hours in there as there's so much to see. If you're there with someone who doesn't care so much for the history of Ferrari then send them downstairs - it's an Aladdin's cave of F40's, an F50, 355's, 360's, GTO's and the classics of which I've only ever seen in books. I used a whole film just in that one room !!

Time was marching on and I still wanted to fit in as many racetracks and sights that I could.
I felt like a tourist on acid , caning the hire car between stops. Straight past Bologna, I'd briefly considered stopping to try and find the Lamborghini factory but didn't have a clue where it was so decided to skip it and head on to Imola. It was now about 17:30 so hit the Imola rush hour, eventually found my way by following the "Autodromo" signs. Imola circuit is very strange, all the stands were open and just the actual track itself is fenced off. There are roads and houses inside the circuit, I should imagine that if you're a racing fan then there's no better place to live. "Fancy watching the F1 love ?", "Yeah, I'll get deckchairs out and stick them in the front garden".

After a completely wasted trip down to San Marino I drove the couple of hundred miles back the way I came.
Only problem was that I hadn't stopped all day - the ceaseless full throttle on the autostrada was taking it's toll on me (and the poor little Clio), somehow I ended up going the wrong way. I realised when passing exits that I shouldn't have been seeing. I was heading North - didn't matter that much, I could hook up with the er whatever road ???? later on and carry on to Milan that way. Time was now really cracking on, I worked out that I'd been driving for around a solid fourteen hours. Nearly the whole width of Italy and halfway back - mainly at around 100mph in a thrashed Clio !!
Wasn't that concerned with the speed limits as I was still getting overtaken, by police cars as well. They obviously have better things to do than book a car for speeding on an empty motorway - take note UK coppers

I'd missed my turning for the motorway to Milan so decided to turn off at the first friendly sounding place. Stopped at Roverto (Rover sounded friendly - they actually had a Rover dealership with a couple of friendly mini's on display !!). Looked quite a posh place so I picked the cheapest looking hotel (didn't end up being cheap), parked the Clio in amongst the Porsches in the hotel car park and hit the sack - asleep in minutes.

Next morning I awoke to the most amazing view outside. It'd been pitch black the night before and although I registered that it was hilly I didn't realise until checking the map that I was in the Alps. I had a window full of picture-postcard snow-capped mountains - excellent !! Felt like a proper tourist mooching round the town and lake - very nice, would definitely want to come back here on holiday but I had an appointment with a Grand Prix racetrack.

Caned it back through the Alpine roads and picked up the motorway to Milan. Had two Ferrari's fly past me at incredible speed, luckily enough both were parked up at the next services for me to drool over. Apparently it turns out that it's common to see fast cars like this booting it and then parking up to avoid turning up at the next toll too early and thus receiving a speeding fne. Made me wonder afterwards as I'd been tanking along without a problem between tolls - obviously wasn't "Ferrari-Fast".

Finally arrived at Monza after a detour to Como, getting completely lost in Milan and nearly wiped out by a tram. Was also desperately short on fuel and as it was Sunday no shops or petrol stations were open. I'd also run out of film, nowhere I went into stocked APS - never even seen it !!

Monza - the town, is a dump, Monza the circuit is excellent.
You can turn up, pay a relatively small amount and take your car on the track for 5 laps. Can you imagine Silverstone opening up the track for just anyone to have a thrash around for £15 - I don't think so!!

I didn't take the Clio on track as I'd been cruel enough to it already - that and the fact that it was running on fumes. I reckon I'd be a mobile chicane for the Ferraris, Integrales and Formula 3000-style single seaters out on track. High points for me were being able to walk on the historic banked section and watching a Ferrari 328 getting trounced by an Audi TT. From a Ferrari fan ? Good ?? Good because the 328 was being driven on the edge, arse end hanging out across the chicane and loads of lovely Italian revs screaming across to the stands. The TT was soul-less, OK it was faster - maybe a better driver - but soul-less nevertheless.

Gutted that I didn't have and couldn't buy any more film. I'll just have to go back with a digi-camera. Afterwards I just about made it back for my flight with the hire car back in one piece, refuelled and with another 1,200+ kilometres on the clock. It was a business class flight so had a few free whiskies on the return journey to unwind. All in all an excellent weekend. Tiring, but I'd do it again - no questions... just a bit more organised and preferably in something a bit quicker... and noisy... and red...