Modena, Italy. Worth the visit?

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/30/2016 at 12:13 • Filed to: None

So right now I’m over in Rome, Italy. On Wednesday, my girlfriend and I will be renting a car and heading north to Tuscany. We will be visiting towns along the way and staying in Siena for the trip. The second day will be spent in Florence and then the last full day is open. We were originally considering Pisa but really just going to see the leaning tower and being touristy seems to be the big draw there. So we are alternately considering going to Modena to check out the Ferrari stuff! Anybody have some recommendations about what to do in Modena and if it’s really worth dedicating the day to? We will have a rental and I’m up for driving anywhere interesting really!

This Alfa I found in Rome looks like a Camaro in this picture

Also, Rome is pretty cool so far. Vatican was interesting but definitely overrated. Glad we bought tickets online because the line otherwise would have been hours of waiting! Everything else though in this city is great!

Real Italian food in Italy!

I enjoy the contrast between old structures and modern traffic

They are like zombies! Hoardes of tourists! Guess I’m one of them though..

DISCUSSION (17)

vondon302 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 12:26

Loved Rome but Florence was the best. Enjoy! Sorry that’s my only 2 stops in Italy. Well so far..

SirDrivesAlot (now with hybrid powerrrr) > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 12:39

If you are a tifosi, the Ferrari museum is a must in Modena. You can’t get into the factory unless you are customer- no public tours! And I agree with vondon302- Florence is gorgeous, and not as crazy as Rome. When I was there 4 years ago they were running a stage of the Mille Miglia through it.

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 15:23

yes yes yes yes yes yes ye s

It was one of my first posts on oppo, I did a road trip in Italy with my dad.

you owe it to yourself to go to the ferrari museum.

t_s > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 15:55

Definitely go to Fiorano. Definitely go to Florence, when you get there drive to Siena on the SR222 and enjoy some of the best driving roads on the planet.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > bob and john
05/30/2016 at 17:00

Is it just a standard walk around museum type place? About how long should it take? Anything else special in the area you remember?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > t_s
05/30/2016 at 17:01

Will definitely check out SR222, Should be fun in whatever euro econobox I end up with!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > SirDrivesAlot (now with hybrid powerrrr)
05/30/2016 at 17:02

What's a Tifosi? Yeah Florence should be plenty of fun. Hoping parking someplace outside the city will be easy enough and taking transit in, because I doubt I want to drive all over the city.

bob and john > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 17:16

Yea, walk around....but holy shit the cars bro. My fucking god.

Also, there is a place right next to it where you can drive some ferraris. Pretty slick

SirDrivesAlot (now with hybrid powerrrr) > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/30/2016 at 17:39

Tifosi roughly translates as “fan” or “the faithful”(although some say it really means “the insane”)- and is usually used /applied to the the fans of Scuderia Ferrari. If you attend the F1 race at Monza, you will see a hillside of the track taken up by them. They are a friendly bunch, just show up there wearing anything Ferrari related and will will be welcomed as part of the family.

t_s > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/31/2016 at 02:34

If you’re heading to Florence from Rome on the highway and want to hit the SR222 I recommend you exit at FIRENZE SUD and then follow the signs for Grassina (if I remember correctly there are singposts for Siena from the exit too), one you’re past Grassina you’ll be on to the SR222. I highly recommend a lunch stop in Greve in Chianti at the Antica Macelleria Falorni. From there you can drive to Siena. I’d definitely stop in Siena because it’s beautiful (biased, it’s my home town), when you leave you can either take the four lane highway back to Florence (careful, it’s a 90km/h limit and there are LOTS of speed cameras), or you can take the SR222 back towards Castellina in Chianti. The part from Molino di Quercegrossa to Castellina in Chianti is actually a round of the European Hillclimb Championship. When you get to Castellina, follow the signs for San Donato for some more epic roads.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > t_s
05/31/2016 at 12:45

Ahh sweet those are some good road suggestions. I'm actually staying just outside Siena so of course I'll be going there! 90 km/hr sounds much better than the max 70 km/hr I was seeing in Norway. But I imagine traffic in Italy in general is faster. Although hopefully slightly less crazy than I've seen in Rome lol.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > bob and john
05/31/2016 at 12:46

Hmm, wonder how expensive driving would be haha

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > t_s
05/31/2016 at 12:51

222 starts just north of Siena right? Any suggestions for fun routes from Rome to Siena? We really have all day to explore and would like to see scenery along the way. Had planned on just following E80 to 223 since that looked more interesting than the A1/E35.

t_s > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/31/2016 at 15:51

It’ll definitely be more interesting, but it is mainly four lane stuff which isn’t the greatest. Again watch for cameras!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > t_s
05/31/2016 at 17:34

Hmm yeah 4 lanes is no Bueno. Plan as of now will be to take SR2 most of the way since that should be a bit more scenic. Definitely will be going the speed limit. Do they have signs warning about upcoming cameras (Norway had that which was nice) or do they hide them?

t_s > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
06/01/2016 at 07:28

Kinja'd!!!

It’s a bit hit and miss with warning signs, sometimes they do have them, sometimes they don’t. This is what it looks like.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > t_s
06/03/2016 at 08:13

Yup, been seeing those a bunch so far. It's funny because I've been generally setting the cruise control to about 5 over whatever the limit is on the autostrades and people will blow past me going 30 or 40 over. It's scary when the speed limit drops from 90 down to 40 in construction zones and yet these people continue on at 130 while I am now going like 70 fearing for my life.