Verona was hot but hotter was still to come as we headed further south onto the plains just north of the Tuscan mountains.  We stopped at Carpi which was a free stopover and had full services and was conveniently on the way to Modena and Maranello (home of Ferrari).

When we pulled up we spotted a UK registered van a year older than Ellie and when the man started looking at the fridge workings Steven headed out to say hello and so we met Michael and Delia a lovely couple heading back to their winter home in Corfu.  Later that evening we joined them for drinks and a lovely chat where Delia told us all about her recent walk on the Camino de Santiago, a walk that I hope to do very soon even if it’s just part of it.

The evening was cut a little short though (still 11.30pm) by the horrible little mosquito’s that were starting to bite us all and the next day was an even bigger challenge in Soragna but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Next day we said our farewells and headed to the Enzo Ferrari house in Modena.  Being an engineer I happen to like looking at big engines and was somewhat disappointed when I got told not to touch the cam shaft (which I was turning to demonstrate to Steven how the valves work).

They have a collaboration with the Pavarotti Museum (he was also born in Modena) at the moment so there was a fantastic video of Enzo’s work with Pavarotti singing his most famous pieces.

We got an inclination that there were people that would give Ferrari a blank cheque to get one of their cars but this became more evident at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello where they had a room of “1 offs” or in some cases “6 offs” plus the clay mock up of the car made just for Eric Clapton.

These are nice cars!