CMYK

Some days it seems the world is just working against you. This was how I felt a while ago when my roommate Hunter and I set off for the motherland of motoring, Emilia-Romagna. The day began with bad weather — in fact, I’m not sure if it stopped raining the entire weekend. This was followed by missing two trains and having to take a taxi to Ducati, where I realized I had made an error in the schedule. We then attempted to visit Pagani, but missed our stop and ended up in Modena. We decided to take this in stride and go ahead and make our way to Maranello, the home of Ferrari — problem was, we couldn’t find the bus stop! After wandering around for close to an hour, we gave up and decided to head to the hostel. It wasn’t until we were walking the opposite direction that we spotted a sign for the Autostazione.

We finally arrived at the Ferrari Museum and were greeted by the raspy exhaust note of a Ferrari F430. Finally things were starting to look up! The museum was filled with gorgeous old and new Ferraris. I even got to see the new 458 Italia! However, some of the most beautiful objects there were the engines. It was interesting to see a 120-degree twin-turbo V6 used in F1 Racing.

After returning to Modena and checking into our hostel, we asked about a place to eat. The receptionist recommended Trattoria da Enzo. It turned out to be a wonderful, small restaurant with a mom-and-pop feel. As we sat and waited for the food to arrive we watched the owner, an elderly gentleman, straightening the wine bottles and making his way around the restaurant, casually chatting with patrons in an Emilian dialect. It was obvious that even at his ripe age he still had a passion for life and wouldn’t be slowed down. I ordered the pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. It was very different, but so delicious! The roasted potatoes were delicious as well. It might seem that potatoes are a difficult food to mess up, and in some sense, this is true — you’d probably have to try to make them taste bad. However, once you’ve tasted potatoes done right, there is a noticeable difference. There was a perfect balance between the flavors of the seasonings and the potato. Everything was great. Even a vegetarian such as myself couldn’t help eyeing Hunter’s balsamic roast beef.

The next morning we got up early and caught a taxi to the Panini Museum, home to historical Maseratis, race cars, and many motorcycles. Strangely, this treasure trove of automotive history is tucked away on a quiet dairy farm not far outside of Modena. There was no showy architecture for the museum, just a small warehouse. Inside, the museum had an intimate, hometown feel to it, and it smelled of old oil and vintage machinery, a scent I am font of. Upon entering, I was immediately drawn to the A6GCS. It was probably the most beautiful car there, and possibly one of the most gorgeous cars I’ve ever seen. Everything there was immaculate. Maseratis have always had quite quirky styling in my opinion, but when you’re standing next to them it all somehow works.

We finally made our way back to Modena and decided to head home when the bad luck set in again. Our train from Modena to Bologna was 30 minutes late, resulting in us missing our train from Bologna to Firenze and having to wait at least another hour. There were a lot of frustrating parts to that trip, but the cars were all beautiful and if nothing else I know it helped me learn more about traveling in Italy. I am sure that my journies since then have been smoother as a result of the struggles that weekend.