If I said the word “Maranello”, my betting is that it means exactly one of two things to you:

a) Nothing
-or-
b) Ferrari

Maranello, the home of Ferrari, is a village just outside of the main city of Modena, around which a number villages playing home to Italian marques orbit: Lamborghini, Pagani, Ducati, they’re all here.

We went to the Ferrari museum and Lamborghini (my preferred Italian marque) too. I’d love to tell you about my tour around the Pagani factory (no museum, too small a marque) but unfortunately they picked-up and immediately replaced the phone handset when I called them to arrange!

I’m pleased to tell you that Squiffy had a good day at Ferrari too, although I could see her thinking:

“Red car. Red car. Another red car. Red car. Red car. Oh look, a silver car. Then a red car. Red car…”

At Lamborghini, rather than follow me round the museum she headed straight for the business reception’s hot-chocolate machine and, along with the female receptionist, looked pathetically on at her boyfriend and eight other adolescent thirty-year olds cheering at a works technician revving the b’locks off the engine of a bright orange Murcielago.

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