I think when the time comes, I will print your posts out in this thread and take on the same trip Aaron.............day by day, step by step! I told Nicole we should do the same and she was cool with it. I just need $200K to buy the car AND the months holiday at the same time. Thanks again and enjoy.
Aaron- Wish Jan and I were in trail with the 575M. Lived in Europe for 14 years, but never did the grand tour like you are doing. Too busy flying fighters for a living. That meant eveything had to be on much smaller scale. Pap- You can be two and I will be three. Only fair. I bet you have enough fans someone would loan you a Ferrari for the trip. Taz Terry Phillips
Wonderful thread, thanks for sharing. I had dreams of a European trip in my Mondial but had to settle for a trip around the states in three parts this summer. 1st part is done driving it to the west coast where it waits for me. Best wishes on your journey and I look forward to your upcoming posts. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
When you get to Venice be sure to visit the Maritime museum, a few hundred yards past San Marco as I recall.
What a fantastic thread and photos and what a journey! Your car looks stunning in Grigio Titanum (the same as my 456) in all of the images! I am now hankering to do a road trip like this! How did you get a Ferrari factory tour - I thought that they were really hard to get?
CONGRATS Aaron ! You got it... Thread of the Month I'm so happy, I enjoyed every second... don't forget to let me know about your new clutch. cheers, Bill
Great thread BTW. I am really enjoying it and thank you for sharing. I have been wanting to do the same type of trip. I also have a silver 575. This makes it even more fun. I hope you get to take A7 from Milan to Genova!!!!
Taz, It's not so hard, just ship your car over for a 4 week journey... At least you will be sitting on the right side of the car...
Once again.... Thakns Heaps. I missed the Maritime Museum in Venice however I will upload some photos from Venice. Heaps to come. Ciao!
Day 15 Venice Given that the car was being repaired we took the opportunity to take the train to Venezia! I love Venezia, it's such a special place with so much history! Although, I have been to Venice 3 times I have never taken a ride in a Gondola, so this time we went on a tour kindly paddled by a gentleman named "Andrea". Andrea was an excellent tour guide providing us with a route that was complete with Marco Polo's house, the house of Casanova and his escape route from prison and of course some beauftiful LARGE motor yatchs that kindly pay to the Italian community in Venezia $20,000 Euro to park for a week! Apparently Phil Collins often rents the Motor Yatch of Flavio Briatore and parks it at Venice for a week or so. The Food of course was excellent. My favourite "Fruitti di Mare" (Seafood)! Now you are probably going to say - "Hey, what about the Ferrari's"??? So inside Venice, I found a Ferrari Shop with a Lazy F1 car parked inside. How they got it there I will never know! I hope you enjoy the photos! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very Easy to get a factory tour, you just have to ask your dealer and provided that you have a F-Car you can get a tour. I hope that this helps....
Congratulations for your excellent thread, I think we all enjoy it !!! When do you plan to join Monte-Carlo ? BR Olivier
Day 16 Vicenza to Verona So thankfully the car was ready with all the major items sorted such as; 1) New Clutch - OH MY GOD! The car feels brand new! 2) New Engine Mounts. 3) Suspension sorted. 4) New Brakes and brake lines. 5) New Rear Undertray Venturi! 6) Full Service and my baby is new again. Supplied was the rubber for the lights, a new door catch and throttle cable which I will have replaced in Melbourne. WOW!! What a difference. The clutch is so light and the car feels awesome, more stable at over 220kms thanks to the rear diffuser as well! So, I thought what better way than to test her out with a quick 120 km round trip to Verona. We get to Verona and park the car. However, I have a small problem..... The drivers window won't go up....... So I check the fuses and they all seem to be fine..... After a quick scan of the Ferrari Manual I find 2 dealers to choose from both within a 3 - 4 km drive! How easy is that!! I turn up and the service manager Matteo is very pleased to help and within 30 Secs they locate and solve the problem. When the previous mechanic had tried to sort the door catch issue they obviously bumped the switch in the door and all that was required was a simple re-connect! Whilst there Matteo was very happy to show us around and amongst a bevy of stunning California's, there was an Azzuro Blue 550! Stunning and......... ........ ........ ........ A Matte Red 599 GTO And...... ........ ......... An FF in Silverstone!!! Wow, my first time to see both cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way, Verona is SO BEAUTIFUL! Without doubt the most beautiful City in Italy we have been to so far! Put it on your list!! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Day 17 Milan Saturday marked the first day of the summer sales in Milano! So we decided to make the 211 kms journey there on Saturday morning to try and get in before the crowds!! Fat Chance!! The Place was PACKED! You had line up for the majors and after lining up for 1 hour in the sun for Gucci, I decided to camp there for a couple of hours and to buy everything in the one shop. To my detriment 90% of the clothes I purchased where from the new season as the old season didn't have my sizes. Having stated this I love the style and in particular the fit of their clothes and needless to say, I was very happy when I walked out of there.... Via Mounte Napoleone is the "it and a bit" street with tonnes of gorgeous cars, clothes and people!! I don't think that I have ever seen so many models in my life. At one point I had to scrape my wifes eyes of the foot path as they popped out when 2 models walked past with thier tops off!!! Very funny to watch!!! There were 3 x 458 illegally parked and they never got tickets, Gallado's and Murcielago's. At the end of the day I drove the 550 down to Via Mounte Napoleone to collect the clothes that we had purchased earlier and whilst I was inside my wife was hounded by Italians speaking Italian to her..... I'd love to know what they were saying........ Sorry no pics as the camera was left at home by mistake..... PS - 211kms in 1 hour and 30 minutes in traffic is a cracking effort and heaps of fun!!
Day 18 Very Special!!! - Imola for the 6 hour Lemans Race A good friend of My Allan Simonsen who races the 458 for Farnbacher was racing today at Imola and of course given that we were only 190kms away I had no excuse but to go and watch the race!! Imola of course is famous for the weekend that Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger died during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. An emotional place for me as Ayrton is one of my heroes!! I was absolutely amazed that there are 2 storey houses around the track and that the circuit is basically located in the city!! I was excited to watch Allan and Dominik race as they were super fast during the 24hr Nurburgring ring 2 weeks ago, setting pole postion and fastest lap of the race in the Hankook Ferrari. Unfortunately during the 24hr at the 4 hour mark they broke a rear wishbone whilst in the lead and there race was cooked! After collecting our passes we headed off to the pits for an afternoon of pleasure! Although it wasn't to be..... Given the hot temps the tyres weren't working at all! Allan described them as the worst ever! So they weren't fast and then a joust with an Aston Martin left them severley wounded requiring some major surgery!! So basically the day was over! They did repair the car in the end and got back out for some hot tyre testing! Whilst there I ran into my Ferrari Mechanic from Melbourne who was with a client who is collecting his 458 GT3 from Michelotto in Padova tomorrow and I received an invite to meet with them tomorrow to visit the factory!! What a small world...... This client also has a black 599GTO one of only 3 in Australia and another guy from Melbourne just collected his GTO this week and was touring around with them as well!! This is the life!! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
