A 6:45am start to the day after an early bed was no problem at all and we were up before the alarm and down to a light breakfast before lugging our cases to the foot of the staircase, down at street level – but the people responsible for collecting the luggage and delivering it to the bus station forgot to come...
When they did finally arrive, we headed back to the water taxis for the ride to the bus station, where we once again had to wait until the luggage arrived. This part of Venice bears no relation whatever to the old town of Venice and we were just across the bay from the cruise ship terminal on the northern side of the old town. Next time we visit Venice, no doubt this is where we will land.
The luggage eventually arrived and the coach set off for Maranello about 30 minutes behind schedule. We had a comfort break on the Autostrada at 11am (cup of coffee €1 – small cup of course) and made excellent time to Maranello, arriving at the Planet Hotel across the road from the main Ferrari factory, about 1:15pm.
We couldn't check in until 2pm, but tour leader John & I went over to "Pit Lane" to try and arrange a bus to take us to the Lamborghini factory, as our original coach wasn't doing it. That took some sorting but the deal was that at the end of the tour, we'd stop back at "Pit Lane" to browsed the models on offer and for those who wanted a Ferrari drive or ride, to make a booking. All the staff seemed to be smokers...
Back at the hotel, we had drawn 302, chucked our bags in , then we headed back for the coach. We needn't have rushed as the time was changed from 2:30pm to 3pm – but we had to be at Lamborghini before 4pm. The coach was 30 minutes late.
Several traffic islands featured sculptures and the glass bunch of grapes represents the Lambrusco wine of the region.
We got to the factory at 4:10, locked our cameras in the lockers, paid our €19 (group rate) entry fees and were split into two or three groups. Our guide spent a fair bit of time telling us about the history of the marque, whilst standing in their museum, so by the time we got to the production area, most of the staff were knocking off for the day, so although the tour was interesting, of the 25 work stations, we didn't see many working. Just two models are being produced and the bodies are made by Audi and shipped in, so the plant was more of an assembly line than a manufacturing unit.
At the end of the tour, Dean (originally from Giltrap's in NZ) introduced himself and we then wandered around taking pictures of the various cars on display, before heading for their shop where I invested heavily in a model of a Lamborghini, hitting my wallet for another €6.
A steady trip back to the Planet Hotel where we hooked up with four others and walked into town to a coffee shop/eatery. Probably not the best food we are going to get on the tour, but it was cheap. On the walk back, we saw others at "Drakes" (no relation to Shane of NZ) so we popped in to say hi, and their food and the ambience looked to be a better bet for tomorrow.
We had free WiFi so I checked emails for the first time and we crashed out about 10:30. Nice room with a pleasant balcony that overlooked the rear car park and the Scuderia Ferrari building (the race area as opposed to the main assembly factory).
An easy day tomorrow with nothing heavy planned for the day, but we heard that Jacques Villeneuve is doing some demo runs in his dad's old F1 Ferrari, celebrating 30 years since he was killed, so at 10:30am, most will head out to see if they can peek at the test track, which is not open to the public and it backs on to the Scuderia Ferrari site.
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