Ferraris and Badlands in Fiorano Modenese, Italy

Zagan the motorhome is back home, his new favourite Italian home at the free aire in Fiorano Modenese (N44.54096, E10.82703) just south of Modena. He’s been made to feel so welcome here, even posing for a photo, with us too, as they don’t get many English vans here. The chap looking after the place is part of the local camper club and popped round this morning to give us a bottle of wine – we don’t know what we have done to deserve it and are extremely grateful if a little bemused, as it’s free to stop here. If they aren’t careful we’ll move in!

This morning I was woken by the sound of a cockerel crowing to let us know the day had begun.  He obviously didn’t know it was Sunday, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. Waking a while later Mr Cockerel and his Mrs are still parading around the sosta, using the electric hook-up to check how they look, all much he annoyance of Mr Duck and his ladies. Sostas in the country are so much nicer than those in towns, but often with little to see around them. That isn’t a problem here as we found out today.

After finally being about to get our satnav maps updated this morning, we set off for the neighbouring town of Marenello – home of the Ferrari factory. As we drove in we joked that it would be funny if we didn’t see a single Ferrari today, but there was no way that was going to happen. Searching for a parking space we turned onto via Dino Ferrari, the street where the Ferrari museum is located, and also the street where any one of several companies will rent you a Ferrari for a spin around the town.  Needless to say before we’d gone a couple of metres, two roared past us – at a steady pace, honest.

Just in case you were wondering….

That bloke on the right looks a bit dodgy!

We parked up a couple of roads away and followed the red footpath that led us straight back to the museum. Now if you know me, and even if you don’t know me, from my list of past cars (Ford Escort, Ford Fiesta, Rover 216, Ford Focus, VW Golf BlueMotion – and a few motorhomes) you can probably guess I am no petrol-head, and neither is Jay – although he has been regaling me all day with little known facts about Ferrari. We figured the museum would be full of Ferraris, most of which are red so I can’t tell them apart, and as they don’t come with an onboard shower, loo and kitchen, it wasn’t the place for us. So along with Charlie we set off for a walk around the Ferrari sights of the town, of course that means the whole town as pretty much everything has a prancing horse on it.

At the end of via Dino Ferrari is the Fiorano test circuit, this is where Ferrari test their cars and people buying new ones can take them for a spin before the rumble of the Italian roads hits them. The circuit is surrounded by a high fence with fabric covering it so you can’t see in to watch the latest model being put through its paces, that is unless you live in one of the blocks of low rise apartment buildings around it – I couldn’t believe how close they were. We peeped through a couple of holes in the fencing, but when it is empty like it was today, it’s just a circuit – so on we went.

After managing to brush off the supercar hire touts for a second time, we stood and watched some of their customers heading out for a spin. After several photos sitting in the car, cameras inside the car to record their trip, and one company had taken it a step further with a drone to follow you.

Is anyone else thinking of the episode of Friends where Joey pretends to have a Ferrari?

Finding the Ferrari shop Jay checked his wallet and realised he probably couldn’t afford a Ferrari sticker, even if he wanted one, so we continued to seek out the free sights. We think we wandered past the main headquarters, it was the most flashy building we saw, then walked around the perimeter of the Ferrari ‘Cittadella’ – which is huge, so big that it has roads which are, of course, named after Ferrari F1 drivers. We were both glad to see that once around the streets at the back of the factory, where the hired Ferraris let out the throttle just a tad, it looks like any other factory, but we did wonder how many years of service you have to do before you get a free car.

Entrance to the Citadella – the huge grey pipe behind Jay is the wind tunnel to test for aerodynamcis

After a couple of hours we’d seen everything we wanted to, so after a quick celebration we headed back to Zagan.

Just a short drive and we were in a nature reserve, and another world – the badlands, known as Calanchi in Italy. Around us the first signs of spring were appearing, small flowers looked skywards hopeful of some sunshine and the trees are starting to bud. We parked up in the coach park (always a safe option in a motorhome) and had lunch before walking up to the Salse di Nirano.

These are a series of ‘mud volcanoes’ which sit there gurgling up million-year old cold, salty mud. In places it just bubbles away in a puddle, but in other areas the mud had built up over time to form cones. When I first saw the image of one I’ll admit I expected it to be towering mountain, but they aren’t. The biggest is a little over man-sized, but they were fascinating nevertheless.

Many locals were using the area for an afternoon walk too, and I loved watching two elderly couples behaving like kids, laughing and defying all the rules by picking up rocks and throwing them into the bubbling mud. Fortunately the mud continued to bubble and they didn’t block anything vital with their increasingly large projectiles. Charlie managed to get mud up to his knees, but then fell into a stream while trying to get a drink so cleaned himself, which is more than could be said for our walking boots – we were a couple of inches higher when we got back to Zagan.

Further boot banging required to clean them once dry

Ju x