Today seemed to be all about cars in one way or another. We just had a simple 4 hour drive from lake Maggiore to a village on the outskirts of Florence. 

We got packed up in good time and were soon on our way. A left turn out of the campsite seemed to throw the sat nav into a complete paddy. The screen seemed to suggest that we were driving into the lake and we were instructed to turn around when possible. A strong electrical storm during the night had thrown out the compass in the car and it really did not know what to do! Not nice when you have learned to rely on these gadgets to the point that you do not have a map…

Google got us to modena, a city that is the birth place of both maserati and Ferrari, the factories are about 250 yards apart although the Ferrari work shop is now a museum, the maserati factory is still building cars.

As we were there it felt rude not to visit the museum which had an exhibition of ferraris in film. There were the usual classics, an F40, lots of gt’s a testarossa, Dino etc etc. The permanent display was all about engines. There were lots of them and it was pretty interesting.

After the museum it was time to get going again, which we did. Again apart from the car being lost, the journey was uneventful, we arrived just too late for a swim but returning to a campsite I had not been to for over 30 years brought back memories of banana rocket ice creams and sitting in the bar watching It’s a knockout……

The campsite is beautiful with terraced sites and a view of Florence that you can not beat. The only problem is that when you book the place they ask about tent size, with us they should really ask about the car, it’s a bit tight! 

So four days exploring the joys of Florence,  also known as the birth place of ice cream, I think we will enjoy it…..