horsepower heaven

Known as the Land of Motors, northern is home to some of the world’s premier motor manufacturers. From Turin, the home of Fiat, through Milan, , and Rimini, John Carey explores the quirky museums celebrating these exciting vehicles – from scooters to supercars. 1955 A6G/54 2000 Spider Zagato (left) and 1961 Stanguellini Formula Junior at Museo Casa Enzo , Modena photography: getty images

october 2012 QANTAS 53 Turin

1954 Fiat Turbina at Museo dell’Automobile di Torino, Turin

it has wheels and an engine, wears a Made in Italy badge and makes your pulse quicken, it was most likely crafted in the topmost part of the bel paese. Italy’s north is home to some of the most Turin spirited and creative car and makers in the world. Over decades, brands such as IfFerrari and Ducati have won respect on the track and the passionate loyalty of owners and fans. Museo dell’ The term Terra di Motori is usually applied to the area where these racy red brands are built, Automobile centred on Bologna and Modena. In truth, the Land of Motors covers a much broader area than di Torino these two near-neighbours in the Emilia Romagna region. 40 Corso Unità d’Italia, Torino. Turin, where the Alps dividing Italy from France are visible on a clear day, is a good place Open: Mon 10am-2pm; Tue 2pm-7pm; Wed, Thu & Sun 10am-7pm; Fri-Sat to start. And Rimini, on the Adriatic coast, is a fine place to finish. On the 500km arc from 10am-9pm. €8. www.museoauto.it one to the other, via Milan, Modena and Bologna, are a string of motor museums and factories, great and small. Turin is Fiat’s birthplace and remains Some of them are guaranteed to entertain even those whose interest in engines and the its home base, but the city’s Museo vehicles they propel is negligible. And not every stop is to worship machinery that’s red, costly dell’Automobile doesn’t focus too and fast. Cheap and practical doesn’t have to mean ugly in Italy, as the first that almost tightly on Italy’s biggest car maker.

turin photography: getty images; museum: © pete golding/4 corners runs over your toes will surely remind you. Now get behind the wheel and hit the road. Andiamo! This airily spacious and well-organised 

october 2012 QANTAS 55 Tremezzo, Lake Como

Museo Scooter & , Rodano

tessera’s and prove no-one managed to do it as elegantly as the italians museum (a major renovation and half of the 1950s to be the next big collection was assembled by From Spain to Russia, in the USA expansion was completed in 2011, thing in automotive propulsion. Vittorio Tessera and its scope and Japan, these now mostly for the 150th anniversary of Italy’s On the ground floor is an area illustrates Italy’s pivotal role in forgotten brands tried to cash unification) tells, in broad strokes, devoted to temporary displays, the evolution of this cheap yet in on the post-WWII demand for of the technical development, such as this summer’s exhibition stylish form of transport. cheap, practical, two-wheeled social effects and cultural (ends October 14) to celebrate the Tessera’s particular passion transport. Tessera’s Lambrettas impact of the car. From an centenary of renowned Italian is Lambretta. The - and Vespas prove no-one Italian perspective, naturally. auto design house, Bertone. owned factory that turned out managed to do it as elegantly While many of the museum’s these famed scooters until 1971 as the Italians. Nearby racing 200 cars are grouped according once stood nearby, and some of circuit: Monza, approx 30km to era, there are specific areas Milan Tessera’s most precious exhibits north (www.monzanet.it/en). devoted to celebrating Italy’s were rescued from destruction racing heritage and its leading role Museo Scooter during its demolition. However, Museo in automotive design. There are & Lambretta with in excess of 100 scooters 57 Via Parodi, Mandello del the expected significant models 38 Via Kennedy, Rodano. on display, there’s more to this Lario. Open: Mon-Fri 3pm-4pm (closed August holidays). Free. from , Lancia and Open: Mon-Fri 9am-12pm museum than just Lambretta. & 2.30pm-6pm. Weekend www.motoguzzi.it Maserati – these days, all part of There are many Vespas, groups on request. Free. the Fiat Group – as well as cars www.museoscooter.it naturally, but Tessera has It’s not on the movie-star side from long-gone, but once glorious collected an amazingly of Lake Como, but Moto Guzzi’s names such as Isotta Fraschini. Milan’s deserved reputation for diverse array of exhibits. Period location is still spectacular. Not Prettiest exhibit of all is the fashion and food, art and culture advertisements and photographs far from its front gate laps the Fiat Turbina. Gorgeously curvy has been earned by the city’s decorate the walls, surrounding lake famous for its beauty and fabulously finned, this core, but the sprawl beyond spindly and awkward scooter long before George Clooney jet-powered prototype was the old city centre is where the precursors from the 1920s and discovered it; behind it, the a test-bed for the turbine Museo Scooter & Lambretta is earlier, plus a fabulously diverse majestic peaks of the Grigna

technology believed in the first to be found. This extraordinary array of non-Italian scooters. mountains rise to 2409m.  vespa logo & museum photography: john carey; tremezzo: getty images

56 QANTAS october 2012 motoring italy

1954 Maserati A6GCS Berlinetta Pininfarina at Museo Casa , Modena

Mandello del Lario, 65km that same year, leaving the 500 north of Milan, has been the V8 as one of motorcycle racing’s home of Moto Guzzi for more most magnificent “What ifs”. one wonderful than 90 years. Today, the brand machine makes the is struggling, but in the decades visit worthwhile – either side of WWII, this place Modena the moto guzzi 500 v8 produced some of the greatest racing ever seen. The small museum contains 85 Via Paolo Ferrari, Modena. racer. The cars inside – not of Modena, is the absolute many fine examples of the Open: daily 9.30am-6pm only – are displayed epicentre of the Ferrari Oct-April; 9.30am-7pm May-Sep. company’s racing and road bikes, like pristine pieces of art. phenomenon. But only Ferrari www.museocasaenzoferrari.it but one wonderful machine customers, suppliers and media makes the visit worthwhile. The Opened in March 2012, the new are permitted inside the factory Moto Guzzi 500 V8 Grand Prix Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena 43 Via Dino Ferrari, where the cars are assembled; racer was an audacious response is, architecturally speaking, much . Open: daily California and 458 Italia 9.30am-6pm Oct-April; to the mid-1950s dominance of more impressive than anything V8-engined models on the 9.30am-7pm May-Sept. €13 four-cylinder rivals and in Maranello. The site includes (€22 for combined Museo ground floor, aristocratic V12- MV Agusta. The hastily-designed the founder’s 1898 birthplace Ferrari/Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari powered F12 Berlinetta and FF on otto cilindri engine could howl and his father Alfredo’s adjoining in Modena; hourly transfers). the piano nobile, the first floor. to 12,000rpm; the bullet-nosed mechanical workshop. www.museo.ferrari.com The merchandise shop machine was speed-checked in Contrasting with the old While the Ferrari legend is huge, across Via Abetone Inferiore 1957 races at 280km/h. The V8’s buildings, their gutted interiors the brand’s hometown museum is a fine place to find gifts and velocity remained unmatched turned into exhibition spaces, is is surprisingly modest. Still, it mementos. About town, Ferrari’s by other racers for decades, but the adjacent exhibition gallery. provides a reason to visit the Renzo Piano-designed F1 wind while it set lap records, it never Its curving roof, in Modena place where the hoofs of the tunnel is worth a drive-by, as won a grand prix. Moto Guzzi yellow, looks from the air like strike hallowed is the wonderful cavallino

withdrew from competition the louvred bonnet of a classic ground. Maranello, 18km south rampante (prancing horse)  photography: getty images

58 QANTAS october 2012 in summer, the roads near the factory resound to the rasp of Museo , accelerating ferraris Bologna

Largo Square, sculpture rearing inside a Modena roundabout on the Via Grizzaga. Bologna In summer, the roads near the factory resound to the rasp of accelerating Ferraris. Sometimes 12 Via Modena, Sant’Agata it’s something fresh off the Bolognese. Open: Mon-Fri (excluding Italian holidays), production line; more often, it’s 10am-12:30pm & 1:30-5pm. €13 an entrepreneurial type doing (unguided museum visit); €40 brisk business selling joyrides. (guided museum/factory tour). The Ferrari Museum bar www.lamborghini.com does its bit to uphold Italy’s reputation for espresso famously decided to found excellence. Through the adjacent his car company in 1963 because entrance, road cars and racers he thought Ferrari wasn’t are grouped in separate areas. doing it well enough. It was Neither is a comprehensive no crackpot notion; the owner record of the company’s of a successful agricultural achievements. On the equipment manufacturing ground floor, a lifelike replica business, Lamborghini was of Enzo Ferrari gazes out from both wealthy and a car lover. a re-creation of his office in From 1958, he had bought Modena. It’s hard to tell what several Ferraris and wasn’t he makes of it all behind his pleased. The noisiness, rough dark sunglasses. ride, insufficiently luxurious errari: © colin dutton/sime/4 corners; museo panini: © pietro canali/sime/4 corners cabin and unreliability annoyed Museo Panini Lamborghini, but apparently it Cittanova. Open: for was the “so what” attitude of guided tours Mon-Sat Enzo Ferrari that was unbearable. Museo Ferrari, (March-July & Sep-Oct). Lamborghini’s later start and Maranello (and www.paninimotormuseum.it below left); Museo its founder’s lack of interest in Panini, Cittanova Modena’s other famous car racing, means the company’s (below right) manufacturer is Maserati. The story isn’t as long or as broad de facto museum of the brand as Ferrari’s. The museum may is in nearby Cittanova, located be small and simple, but it does 8km from the centre of town. include examples of almost Maserati’s original collection of everything the company has 23 historic racers and road cars ever produced, including the was saved from dispersal in 1997 supremely beautiful Miura and

by businessman Umberto Panini dramatically angular Countach. orghini, largo square photography: getty images; museo f b and given a home. Reservations Best of all, the museum is right for guided tours can be made beside the place

on the website. have always been made, in the  museo lam

60 QANTAS october 2012 online for more motoring stories, set the controls of your cyber sat nav for qantas.com/travelinsider

Piazza Maggiore, Bologna; seven- times MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi at Museo Ducati, Bologna (below) small town of Sant’Agata to make electrical components. Bolognese, 25km from Bologna. By the 1930s they were turning And Lamborghini, these days out rather classy radios. one of the many brands owned The Ducati factory in Borgo by the Volkswagen Group, runs Panigale, 7km west of the centre factory tours. This is the place of Bologna, was flattened by to see supercars being made. Allied bombers in 1944. The company’s postwar salvation Museo Ducati was a cucciolo, or puppy, the 3 Via Antonio Cavalieri name given to a tiny engine Ducati, Bologna. Open: designed to be bolted to a 30-minute guided tours bicycle frame, which Ducati by appointment via website. Mon-Fri 9.15am, 11am, 1:45pm, began producing in 1946. Bruno 3:30pm; Sat 10am, 11am, 12am. Ducati later estimated almost Closed Aug 5-Sep 2, Dec 22-Jan a million of the single-cylinder 7. €10. www.ducati.com (Tours four-stroke motors were made. currently suspended due to Ducati was in the motorcycle Emila-Romagna earthquakes; check website for updates) business and as times improved, dell’Automobile in Turin, Italy’s and Moto Guzzi are present it began to thrive. The company’s national motorcycle museum is a in numbers, of course, but it’s Beauty may beget desire, fine museum covers this humble place. The collection of remarkable how many more but it takes speed to command remarkable rise. Nearby racing more than 250 bikes, assembled motorcycles there once were. respect. Ducati has repeatedly circuit: Imola, 50km east on A14 by three enthusiasts from Rimini, This modest museum preserves combined aesthetic allure and (autodromoimola.com). is a crowded jumble. the memory in metal of brands technical merit to produce The arrangement is rather such as , , revered sporting motorcycles more men’s shed than carefully Parilla and Rumi. for the road and fiercely Rimini curated modern museum, but An exchange meet is held in competitive racers for the track. that doesn’t really matter. The front of the museum on the Sometimes, as in the case of the Museo Nazionale collection covers a century of third Sunday of each month. Ducati 916 in 1994, the qualities del Motociclo motorcycle progress, from the Nearby racing circuit: were almost indistinguishable. 58/N Via Casalecchio, Rimini. earliest to the 1980s. Misano, 12km south-east But Ducati’s first product had Open: Thu-Sun 10am-12.30pm & While there are some (www.misanocircuit.com). 3pm-7pm (April-October). €5. c no wheels at all. The company bikes from other countries, www.museomotociclo.it For airfares call Qantas on was founded in 1926 by brothers it’s essentially a ready-to-ride 13 13 13 or visit qantas.com. For Bruno, Adriano and Marcello Compared to the glossy roll-call of Italy’s two-wheeled holiday packages to Italy call

Ducati and their father, Antonio, professionalism of the Museo past. Survivors such as Ducati Qantas Holidays on 13 14 15. piazza maggiore photography: getty images

62 QANTAS october 2012