Day 28 - Maranello

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Catching a cab from the hotel out to the airport, it was off to Maranello, the home of Ferrari, but first we had to find our way out of Florence. With Zac at the wheel of our rental car, and turning on the trusty Tomtom and digging out the map as a backup we headed out through the crazy traffic of Florence and after several “oops we were supposed to go down there” it was off into the country side. Taking a back road to Maranello was a nice change from the hustle and bustle from the city and we were soon threading our way through country roads northwards towards our destination.

An hour and a half or so later we entered the heart of Ferrari looking for the museum and the array of firms renting Ferrari and Lamborghini drives. The museum is a special place for F1 and Ferrari fans with many F1 race cars mingled with stunning examples of road cars and historical items from days gone bye.

After a lengthy browse Zac was keen to head out and arrange a drive and duly found a a suitable “set of wheels” a Ferrari red F430. While Zac was roaring around the streets of Maranello it was into the shop for me to buy a new pair of Ferrari shoes.

Zac returned with a big smile on his face and while they got held up in traffic a little he loved the drive. Mission accomplished! It was mid afternoon now and time to head back to Florence, forsaking the back roads it was time to hit the Auto Strada for a quicker trip back. Despite the best intentions we again missed the turn-off to the express way and ended up driving around the side roads until we found a link to the main road.

Entering the busy streets of Florence we dropped the car back and caught a train back to central. Nearing dinner time we headed off top our new favourite eating place Ristorante Lorenzo de' Medici, great food and even better service with jugs of red wine for a few euros. After a long day it was back to the hotel for an early night.

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