fivepint

Hi, Im off on a well deserved two week break to italy with my Gf and midget (8yrs) we will be in and around the Tuscany region... mainly near Siena & San Giamango (sp!)

Obviously I know about art/heritage etc but what motorsport related goodies can I find... is it a feasible drive from here to bologna/modena?

How difficult is navigation seeing as im always right and so is she

any info appreciated

Cheers

davegtt

if u go to bologna (was there last week ) well worth a trip to see the ducati museum its also in the middle of the red light district lol

fivepint

PMSL im sure the GF will love that! Although the midget at 8 yrs old still hates girls?!?! maybe the Ducati Museum will help him see the error of his ways

Goochie

I was in Tuscany a month ago, stayed in a villa just outside Lucca. We drove up to Modena to the Ferrari Galleria and I personally was really disappointed. You have to pay about EUR15 to get in to see a bunch on engines, a couple of F1's and a few road cars. They did have an Enzo but it was in the darkest pokiest part of the place.



I wouldnt suggest going there as it is a long drive up a 2 lane motorway with loads of lorries to see less Ferraris than a Ferrari dealer in the UK would have.

Navigation is OK, the only thing you need to watch for is vanishing road signs LOL! You'll be happily following the signs for a place then reach a cross roads to find no signs at all, the road carries on so you follow - to find you should have turned left!

Lucca is a lovely old walled town that you could easily spend a day at. There is parking within the town walls if you look hard enough. There is a smallish church that has a mummified nun type lady on display!

Sienna is very nice, be sure to climb the tower. When you visit Sienna the best place to park is called something like "San Fransisco". Its a large car park half way up the mountain that gives access to the town via about 7 escalators. This works very well and saves a lot of agro trying to park nearer.

Pisa is a bit of a 2 hit wonder, a tower that leans and a big church - wow! It'll cost you about EUR15 each to climb the tower and less for the Dumo.

DOnt bother going to the seaside, its truely rubbish. The sea is a nice colour but the beaches small dark sandy affairs covered with large rocks - which, will be covered in locals.

Florence is lovely, well worth visiting in the evening as well as duing the day. All the guide books tell you to use the train but we drove right into the city twice andfound parking to be cheaper than the train would have been.If you decide to drive in, be patient and use a very good map/co-driver

If you've driven a LHD car before it'll be easy, just take a laid back approcah to the locals driving and you cant really go wrong. Watch out to the mopeds in large towns as they'll cut you up, ride on pavements etc..

The midget may appreciate the Parco de pinochio at Collodi, though he may be a little old for it.

Be wary of looking at a map and thinking the road is straight, we made this mistake and spent the whole day going up and down hairpins - great to start with but we got bored of it after a while!

Use the motorways where possible for long journeys, there are tolls but they are quite cheap, the lanes are very narrow in places and the lorries wander all over the place. Watch out for this in road works as the lanes get even narrower but the lorries keep wandering. While there we saw a guy in a punto get scrapped against a wall by a lorry at 60mph - he was very very lucky and managed to keep going (largely because they were going the same speed, i think)

Eat lots of ice cream.

Drink lots of Chianti.

Anything else??

fivepint

Brilliant! thanks for the info Goochie, I may make the pilgrimage to Ferrari as here in Ireland you'd be lucky to see a poxy 348 every 6 months but thx for the heads up

And I'll avoid trucks too

Goochie

I assume you'll be hiring a car? We had a Megane diesel that averaged 57mpg avoer the holiday - FLorence to Rome cost just EUR15 in fuel!

Maranello is full of F1 gift shops, the official Ferrari store is expensive but the one next to the Galleria Car Park is quite reasonably and packed floor to ceiling.

Which town are you going to be in?

(oooo look, 1000 posts!)

super_si

Pasta 00000h 7,200 something

fivepint

PMSL congrats on the post count yup have hired a F**T Stilo (hoping to blend in) we will be based near Siena & San Giamngo... did the run from Florence to Rome take long?

Cheers

Goochie

Florence to Rome took us about 3 hours I guess but we were cruising, Rome to Florence took a little over 2hrs with the turbo often whistling its way to a little over 150kph

fivepint

No too bad considering it took me nearly 4 hours to travel to Galway (120mi) last weekend !!! Thanks again G.