Italy’s Motor Valley Viaggio Su Strada With Larry Nutson

Italy’s Motor Valley
By Larry Nutson
Executive Editor
THE AUTO CHANNEL

I have been known to characterize Italy as a very large vineyard. Over the years, my wife and I have visited many of Italy’s 20 regions and always discovered new wines along with delicious food while appreciating and enjoying its culture and more than 2000-year-old history.

We recently enjoyed a road trip through Northern Italy that took us through the regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. All told, we drove 1374 km or 852 miles.

Negotiating the Italian landscape is quite easy with today’s good handling cars and a vehicle’s native Nav system to help guide from place to place. I mention good handling cars since Italy’s often very narrow, winding, curve-filled roads, along with round-about after round-about make them a necessity.

As a point of information, our rental on this trip was a Hyundai Kona 1.6L HEV. With gasoline costing around Euro 1.90 per liter, which equates to Euro 7.22 per gallon, or $8.55 per gallon at today’s exchange rate, I tried to keep reminding myself of the cost of gasoline as we cruised Italy’s Autostrada at 130kmh (81mph)––sometimes at a bit more.
The Emilia-Romagna region is known for its wine but it’s also Italy’s “Motor Valley.” It’s the home to iconic car and motorcycle makers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani and Ducati. The Motor Valley offers experiences such as museum visits, factory tours, and the chance to drive on the region’s various race circuits. In planning this trip I did ask my wife to allow for a “car day.” My plan was to visit the Ferrari Museum in Maranello and enjoy lunch in a nearby restaurant. The Ferrari Museum in Maranello is best for F1 and racing fans, showcasing the brand's history and engineering with a focus on modern cars and factory visits.

There is also another Ferrari Museum in Modena. This museum, called the Enzo Ferrari Museum, focuses on Enzo Ferrari's life story and celebrates classic and road-going cars in a unique, art-like display. You can easily visit both museums in a day, as they offer complementary but distinct experiences.

We decided to only visit the Maranello museum because I learned that our car day could also include driving on the Modena Autodromo circuit in a Ferrari 488 Challenge. The 488 Challenge car is a purpose-built race-prepared modified production car fitted with a 3.9L V8 that produces 697HP at 10,000rpm. The V8 is mated to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission with manual paddle shift. The car weighs 1100Kgm has a top speed of 340km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in 2.8 secs.

A full roll cage makes for a “challenge” to get seated and then out again. Wheels, tires, brakes, five-point seat belts, the whole set-up is for the track. It’s not a street-legal car. And the body aero makes for lots of down force.

I’m not a pro or even semi-pro racer but do have a good amount of experience having done a fair amount of track driving with various performance production cars on the invite of various makers such as Ford, Dodge, Lexus, Mazda, VW to mention some. My 488 drive session was typical for an amateur––class room session to explain the car and the track, one lap with the driving coach at the wheel, switch seats and it’s all mine with the “co-pilot” talking me through various sections of the track. It gets fun after one or two laps of track familiarity. The Ferrari 488 Challenge proved to be fast, responsive, well-balanced and very, very strimulating. I was smiling a lot.

Our “car day” shaped up to be me driving the 488 at the Autodromo, lunch at Massimo Bottura’s Cavallino restaurant located across the street from the Ferrari factory, followed by a docent-led tour of the Ferrari Museum. It was indeed a memorable day.

After a few days in Emilia Romagna that include a day trip to Bologna using one of Italy’s high speed intercity trains, we headed to the Veneto region and the city of Verona. Verona dates back more than two thousand years and is a very charming, walkable city with interesting architecture and churches as well as an ancient Roman amphitheater that dates to 30 AD. And, to this day the Arena de Verona has been well preserved and well maintained to continue in use as an entertainment venue.

On our Saturday morning exploration walk we, by-chance, came across the Verona Auto Club with a myriad collection of Ferraris staged around Verona’s Piazza Bra public square (bra is from the Italian word braida meaning wide.) The cars with their driver and passenger were about to depart on a tour of the city and a drive into the countryside. So Italian!

Our 2025 Italian road trip ended in Milan. This gave me the opportunity to visit the Alfa Romeo Museum which is located about 30 minutes by car outside the city. The Alfa museum provides an excellent overview of this storied brand. Not only are there wonderful examples of Alfa’s classic cars from over the years, but the museum itself is architecturally unique. The curation of the vehicle displays with elevated views from the floor above provided for wonderful images.

So that’s it. Visit Italy! It’s a great place for us car-folk and offers wonderful food and wine.

Ciao!